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A US congresswoman-elect with firearms and gun-themed restaurant owner in Rifle, Colorado, has already asked Capitol police to carry her gun on the Capitol grounds, her office acknowledged. If you do, you apparently won’t be alone.
The practice is allowed for legislators, with some limitations, under decades-old Congressional regulations. The public is prohibited from carrying weapons on the Capitol, its grounds and office buildings.
Republican Lauren Boebert, 33, was elected this month from a conservative western Colorado district after being known as a brash pro-gun activist who straps a Glock pistol to her hip. Last June, angrily, she defeated five-term Representative Scott Tipton for the Republican nomination, in part by stating that she was not a fervent enough supporter of outgoing US President Donald Trump.
Boebert asked Capitol Police officers about carrying her gun when she and other House freshmen who took office in January were in town recently for orientation programs, according to two Congressional officials. Two people, a Democrat and a Republican, spoke on condition of anonymity to describe your request.
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Boebert’s aides, whom Trump endorsed as “a fighter” who “will never bow to the establishment in Congress,” did not make her available for an interview.
“This was a private discussion and consultation on what the rules are and as a result the elected congresswoman will not be made public,” Boebert’s aide Laura Carno said in an email last week.
The investigations by Boebert, who runs Shooters Grill, come as guns remain an exciting topic for both sides, fueled by images of rallies by armed Trump supporters, conservative pressures to ease state restrictions on guns and mass shootings. of the last few years.
Still, the prospects for significantly changing federal gun laws appear slim as a new and tightly divided Congress takes office in January alongside United States President-elect Joe Biden.
Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki did not respond to a reporter’s questions about the department’s communications with Boebert and the number of lawmakers carrying firearms.
David Zalubowski / AP
Lauren Boebert, the Republican candidate for the seat of the United States House of Representatives in Colorado’s vast third congressional district, during a freedom cruise organized by her supporters in Pueblo West, Colorado.
Agency officials did not respond directly when Democrats on the House Administration Committee asked in 2018 how many lawmakers were carrying firearms on Capitol Hill. Officials said in a written reply that “were informed” of consultations on the carrying of weapons.
“There is no standing requirement” that lawmakers notify them when they carry a firearm on Capitol Hill, officials wrote. The regulations require the safe storage of weapons, but “the responsibility lies with the Member” they said.
A 1967 regulation says that no federal or District of Columbia law restricting firearms will “prohibit any member of Congress from keeping firearms within the confines of his office” or “transporting firearms within the Capitol grounds. fire unloaded and well wrapped “.
Lawmakers can’t bring guns into the House chamber and other nearby areas, regulations say, according to a letter that Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman wrote in 2018. Aides can carry lawmakers’ guns in the Capitol complex, wrote.
In his letter to the Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, Huffman summarized the following regulations that Irving informed him respect.
Huffman, who opposes allowing members of Congress to carry weapons on the Capitol grounds, abandoned a 2018 effort to stop the practice due to strong opposition from his colleagues and said in an interview that he would not try again this year because of to continuous resistance.
Huffman said the loophole for lawmakers, adopted after a summer of race riots in American cities, is outdated and risky.
He said the members and staff carry guns by the Capitol “all the time” but did not mention names. He said lawmakers keep weapons in their public access offices, although entry to the building has been limited due to Covid-19.
“Members could have an AK47 loaded on their desk and no one would do anything about it,” Huffman said.
He also said that with lawmakers exempted from going through detection devices across the Capitol campus, “no one checks” to make sure they aren’t bringing guns onto the House floor.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, chairman of the House of Representatives Second Amendment Caucus, justified allowing lawmakers to carry guns. He cited the 2017 wave of shootings when a gunman injured Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and four other people while practicing baseball in nearby Alexandria, Virginia.
“As soon as you leave the Capitol property, you are a target,” Massie said.
John Bazemore / AP
Republican elected representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Also supporting Boebert is Representative Elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, like Boebert, a far-right conservative with a penchant for attracting publicity. Greene, like Boebert, has voiced support for QAnon’s conspiracy theories, though both have tried to distance themselves from the unfounded beliefs.
“Not only do I support members of Congress who carry firearms, I believe that all Americans have that right,” Greene said in a statement. “I will work every day to end ALL gun-free zones.”
Police periodically arrest people caught trying to smuggle firearms into the Capitol and its buildings.
Matt Slocum / AP
The campaign adviser to the president of the United States, Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski.
In 1999, Corey Lewandowski, then a congressional aide and then Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager, was arrested when what court records called a loaded handgun was found in a laundry bag that he was bringing into a Washington office building. the camera. The misdemeanor charges were dismissed.
Police protects the Capitol complex with more than 2,300 officers and civilian employees, according to its website. Its officers routinely arrest people caught trying to carry weapons on Capitol Hill.
Regulations allowing legislators to carry guns were written by the Capitol Police Board, which consists of four of the top law enforcement and administrative officials in Congress.
