- Republican MP Lauren Boebert objected to a House committee rule that prohibits the carrying of firearms in her courtroom.
- The lawmaker appeared at a virtual meeting in front of several weapons stacked on a shelf.
- The House’s Natural Resources Committee finally upheld the rule on Thursday.
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At a virtual meeting on Thursday, against a backdrop of multiple weapons, Rep. Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, criticized the rule proposed by a House committee to ban the carrying of firearms in her Capitol courtroom.
“This rule is absurd and discriminatory,” Boebert said in front of the bookcase full of firearms during a conference call with the House’s Natural Resources Committee. “This is a flagrant violation of our constitutional rights.”
The freshman Republican asked the committee chairman, Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, of Arizona, to issue “personal security” if the committee went ahead with the measure.
“I would like to ask at this point for a personal security team that the president pay for himself, every time I enter the committee room,” said Boebert. “If this passes, the president is trying to take responsibility for my personal safety while taking away my Second Amendment rights.”
By a 1967 regulation, members of Congress are allowed to keep weapons in their offices and transport them around the Capitol complex. However, there are some exceptions, including on the floor of the House and Senate. In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers, including Boebert, have praised the regulation and opposed what they see as restrictions on it.
Members of the House’s Natural Resources Committee met on Thursday to organize its panel for the 117th Congress, which included a debate over a rule that prohibits the carrying of firearms inside its courtroom. The rule was finally approved by voice vote.
“As far as we are concerned, we are not doing anything new here,” a Democratic committee spokesman told Insider. “We are reaffirming the existing policy.”
Democratic Representative Jared Huffman of California defended the rule on Thursday and took aim at Boebert’s perspective.
“This is the reality, if someone wants to have a sanctuary for their gun fetish as a backdrop to Zoom in their private lives, they can do that,” he said during the meeting. “But this is our courtroom. And at some point, we will overcome the COVID epidemic and we will all start to appear in person. And our security and our ability to conduct business civilly without feeling threatened is a relevant consideration, unfortunately.”
Boebert later rejected criticism of the weapons in his video, after the screenshots were posted online.
“Who said this is storage? Are they ready for use,” Boebert said in response to a tweet that mocked the placement of the firearm as “unsafe gun storage”.
– Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) February 18, 2021
Another Colorado deputy, Jason Crow, an army veteran, it hit Boebert’s exhibition as a “political feat”.
“I never stacked guns on a bookcase when I was at war, much less on a zoom in my living room,” said Crow.
Boebert, an advocate for arms rights, gained national attention last month when she suggested that she would carry a Glock with her across Washington, DC, and to Congress. Open carrying is illegal in the nation’s capital, and gun owners must register their firearms with the DC police and obtain a license if they choose to transport them concealed. The Metropolitan Police Department at the time said it would contact Boebert.
Earlier this month, acting police chief Robert Contee said Boebert received a concealed license.
During Thursday’s meeting, Boebert also raised concerns about new metal detectors installed outside the Chamber chamber in light of the January 6 siege of the Capitol. She had already refused to comply with the security protocol.
Boebert represents Colorado’s 3rd congressional district and ran his 2020 campaign on a pro-gun platform. She owns a restaurant in the state called “Shooters Grille”, where waiters are encouraged to carry weapons openly.