Representative Steve Stockman of Texas was born in Michigan in 1956. Rumor has it he was once homeless until he became a born again Christian and an accountant at IBM. At the age of 34, he earned a BA from University of Houston, Clear Lake, the same year (1990) he first ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. It was close, so he ran again two years later but lost once more. On his third try, he finally defeated the incumbent, Democrat Jack Brooks. That was the end of an era, or three: Brooks had been in the House for 42 years. Stockman only lasted the two-year term, but now he’s back and holstered up.
Stockman is a gun guy. (Turns out guns are an issue every formerly homeless person has a strong opinion on.) In the 1990s, the Congressman suggested that the Clinton administration raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco merely to justify a ban on assault weapons, rather than to capture a cult leader responsible for the deaths of four federal agents. It was a strange conclusion for a law-and-order advocate to draw. Twenty years later (January 2013), Stockman introduced “The Safe Schools Act,” a bill that would repeal federal laws mandating “gun free zones” around schools in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, CT. He issued a press release condemning Obama executive orders on gun control stating: “I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment.” The executive order is a controversial governing tactic, whatever the issue, but that’s not his beef. The red meat that gets his salivary soaking is the Second Amendment, and how misunderstood it is. This evening Stockman is expected to bring NRA board member and former rock star Ted Nugent, a fellow Michigander, as his guest to the President’s State of the Union address—further proof that Stockman shoots, as it were, from the formerly hip. Former Representative Gabby Giffords will be there too. No civilian in the chamber will be permitted to carry a firearm.
