- A newly elected Republican congresswoman posted an ad saying she intends to carry a firearm with her through Washington, DC, and ended up on the Metropolitan Police Department’s radar.
- “I’m taking my firearm to DC and to Congress,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert in the announcement. “It is our job in Congress to defend your rights, including your Second Amendment, and that is exactly what I am here for.”
- But police chief Robert Contee III said the freshman legislator would be “subject to the same penalties for everyone else caught on the street in the District of Columbia carrying an illegal firearm.”
- It is not clear whether Boebert actually carried a Glock pistol hidden by the city or to the Capitol, to which the ad alludes. It is also unknown whether the gun was registered with the DC police, according to city law.
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The Washington, DC, chief of police said on Monday that the Metropolitan Police Department intended to contact newly elected Republican MP Lauren Boebert after she talked about walking a gun through the city.
“We intend to contact the congresswoman’s office to make sure she is aware of what the District of Columbia laws are, what the restrictions are,” said Police Chief Robert Contee III during a news conference.
The freshman legislator will be “subject to the same penalties for everyone else caught on the street in the District of Columbia carrying an firearm illegally,” added Contee.
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The comments came after Boebert, who took office on Sunday, released an ad that same night that she appeared to be walking around the Capitol with a hidden Glock gun.
“I’m taking my firearm to DC and to Congress,” she says in the video. “It is our job in Congress to defend your rights, including your Second Amendment, and that is exactly what I am here for.”
—Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 4, 2021
Open possession is illegal in Washington, DC, and gun owners must register their firearms with the DC police and obtain a license if they choose to carry concealed weapons. But members of Congress can have weapons in their offices and carry them on Capitol grounds because of a 1967 regulation.
Boebert, who made gun rights a central issue in his 2020 campaign, wrote a letter to the House leadership last week with the support of 82 Republican lawmakers who are pushing to keep the 1967 rule in place. They were responding to the House Democrats’ recent call for lawmakers to be banned from carrying weapons on Capitol Hill.
“I choose to defend my family and my life with all the strength that the Constitution provides,” she said.
Boebert, a staunch conservative who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, owns a restaurant called Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado, where waiters openly carry firearms. The 34-year-old woman joins a list of freshman Republican women serving in the House.
It is not clear whether Boebert actually carried his firearm across Washington, DC or to the Capitol. It is also unknown whether the weapon was registered with the DC police.
Boebert’s office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, DC, said at the news conference on Monday that she had not yet seen Boebert’s video, but called the matter in question “serious business”.
“We must all take an American’s ability to exercise” his rights very seriously, she said, but “we have a serious threat to our democracy now, that the will of the American people, through a fair election, is being questioned and violence is being incited. “
Last month, violence broke out in Washington, DC, during protests against President Donald Trump’s electoral defeat. Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, were at the scene and plan to be in town again on Wednesday for another pro-Trump rally.