Gun-Loving Rep. Who Owns Gun-Themed Restaurant Would Like to Carry Gun on Capitol Hill

Well, what do you know: The gun-loving congresswoman who owns a gun-themed restaurant would like to carry her gun around Capitol Hill.

In a new ad, incoming Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert loads a gun and secures it in a holster before reassuring her constituents that, despite now working in “one of the most liberal cities in America,” she refuses to “give up [her] rights, especially [her] Second Amendment rights.”After saying these words, Boebert walks toward a Microsoft WordArt-like graphic that reads “I will carry my Glock in Congress.”

Boebert then goes on the list the reasons why she supposedly needs to tote a gun around D.C., one being that she will have to walk to her office by herself every morning. “As a 5-foot tall, 100-pound woman I choose to protect myself legally, because I am my best security,” she says.

This isn’t the first time Boebert has made her intention to bring her gun in Congress. When she and other House freshman were in D.C. in November for orientation, Boebert—who spent much of her campaign focusing on gun rights (at least when she wasn’t entertaining QAnon conspiracy theories)—asked Capitol Police officials about carrying her weapon once she took office.

According to the Associated Press there is no “standing requirement” that lawmakers let officials know they intend to carry a firearm in Congress, and a rule from the 60s actually states that members of Congress can’t be prohibited from bringing firearms to the Hill, so long as they remain “within the confines of his office.” The regulation also states that members of Congress can carry their firearms on Capitol grounds if they are “unloaded and securely wrapped.”

But while we don’t know exactly what Capitol Police told Boebert the first time she asked about gun carry, Washington D.C. police officials now say they intend to speak with Boebert about the plans she describes in her latest ad.

On Monday, D.C. police Chief Robert Contee III told reporters he wants to make sure “she is aware of the what the laws of the District of Columbia are”: “That Congresswoman will be subjected to the same penalties as anyone else that’s caught on the D.C. streets carrying a firearm,” he said during a press conference.

A spokesperson for Boebert has reassured us that she “will comply with all applicable firearm laws and regulations.”

Normally, this would go without saying. But we’re already way past normal, aren’t we?