Senate Panel OKs concealed-firearms bill

A month and a day after the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported legislation Thursday that would allow retired law enforcement personnel to carry concealed firearms.

“The dedicated public servants who are trained to uphold the law and keep the peace deserve our support and our thanks,” the chairman of the committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), said. “We also act in our own interest when we give law enforcement officers the ability to answer the call of duty wherever they may be.”

{mosads}The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2007, S. 376, amends legislation Congress passed and the president signed into law in 2004 that stated law enforcement officers are never “off duty.” Under that law, Leahy noted, retired officers were subject to differing weapon-certification procedures from state to state.

Leahy, who cosponsored the bill, noted that in order to qualify for certification under this law, officers must have retired in “good standing.”

While the senator did not mention the Virginia Tech massacre, he did describe a situation in Utah in which an off-duty officer saved lives during a shooting spree.

“For example, just recently in a tragic shooting spree that killed five people in a shopping mall in Utah, an off-duty officer, Ken Hammond, likely saved lives when he confronted a killer who was heavily armed and engaged him until other officers arrived,” Leahy said. “He could have just as easily been a retired officer as an off-duty officer.

“The men and women who have served as peace officers are a tremendous resource in all of our communities,” he added.