There was this hearing last week before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. The subject bill would block cities and counties from suing gun manufacturers for the use of guns in crimes not committed by said manufacturers, legislation already adopted by 26 states.

So up speaks Representative Henry Waxman (D-Cal.), in an attempt to stop videotaping of the hearing by a freelance video journalist. The infraction? According to Waxman, not normally a camera hater he, the camera was "owned and controlled by the National Rifle Association." The journalist produced his credentials, accrediting him to both the Senate and House news galleries. That didn’t matter to Representative Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y), who insisted that the man’s credentials were irrelevant if he were taping for the NRA.

Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) then ruled that he wasn’t going to ban a journalist with the appropriate credentials, but Waxman and Towns kept on, soon to be joined by Representative Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who exclaimed that she was "deeply offended" by the taping.

Offended by what, your royal high hoogenmoogada? That someone, anyone, particularly one of those dreaded "outside groups" you referred to, would have the unmitigated gall to seek to document the doing of the people’s business?

We’ve never been quite sure what an "outside group" is, but we think we may be one, since we do some of those things that are attributed to "outside groups," never favorably. We say what we think and do what we say. We speak out on legislation and ask others to do the same. We advertise and otherwise communicate on public issues. We go to court a lot to defend the Constitution, the violators of which are those elected and sworn to uphold it. We cast a vigilant eye on the likes of Representative DeGette, lest they soon progress to offering us cake.

We don’t know whether the cameraman was working under contract for the NRA or not, nor do we care. When we think of that quaint phrase, "the people’s right to know," we think that does not exclude any people, including the millions of NRA members and the many more millions who care deeply about the Second Amendment and have a better relationship with the First Amendment than many who are supposed to uphold both.

Tape them. Tape them all. Tape them babbling and squabbling and maneuvering and posturing and acting like children whose nanny took a nap. Tape them and watch them frequently to remind all of us why the Founders thought it better for us to be a nation of laws than a nation of men.