With thousands of armed zealots descending upon Washington D.C. spewing threats of violence in pursuit of a coup, it’s reasonable enough that Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is talking about the need to protect herself.
Unfortunately, she’s one of them.
Boebert, a newly elected Republican from Colorado, is basking in media glory before she even gets to work in Congress because of how she’s coming to work in Congress: proudly packing her Glock. It was reported here in November that she had been asking around about carrying her gun on Capitol grounds.
But this week, she struck wing-nut gold: After garnering support through a letter from fellow Republicans — who, let’s face it, will sign anything if it’s creepy enough — Boebert is now enjoying a full-throttle media joy ride. Fox News, desperate to crawl out of Trumper Time Out, greeted her with a hero’s welcome.
Boebert has gone viral with a 3-minute video and accompanying tweet that might best be described as having a QAnon Amazon Chic motif. It begins with her loading her weapon dramatically and then venturing out into the dangerous “liberal” streets of Washington D.C. (Boebert previously expressed support for QAnon, but now says she’s not so sure.)
In any event, her ad doesn’t seem to suggest that you’d want her as your Congresswoman next door. Here it is:
Let me tell you why I WILL carry my Glock to Congress.
Government does NOT get to tell me or my constituents how… https://t.co/yA5KuB38Mx
— Lauren Boebert (@Lauren Boebert)1609720406.0
Fox commentators heaped praise on Boebert for “exercising her Second Amendment rights.” And sure enough, she got lots of Republican lawmakers to sign onto to a letter supporting that noble cause. Looking at many of them, it’s probably the only exercise they’d endorse.
Here’s how Fox News reported her triumph:
“The advertisement comes after Boebert wrote a letter to House leadership Friday, urging them to keep a 1967 rule that exempts lawmakers from a ban on firearms inside the Capitol building.
The letter, which was signed by 82 other current and incoming GOP Congress members — including Dan Crenshaw, Mo Brooks, Louie Gohmert, and Matt Gaetz — came three days after 21 Democratic lawmakers asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to change the 53-year-old rule to keep Boebert from carrying her gun into work.
On Saturday, Boebert appeared to score a victory, as new rules unveiled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not appear to include a proposed ban on firearms in the Capitol.”
There is another side of this, however. As Business Insider reports, the local police are not all that impressed:
“The police chief of Washington, DC, said on Monday that the Metropolitan Police Department intended to contact newly elected GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert after she talked about carrying a handgun around the city.
“‘We plan to reach out to the congresswoman’s office to make sure that she is aware of what the laws of the District of Columbia are, what the restrictions are,” police Chief Robert Contee III said during a news conference.
“The freshman lawmaker will be ‘subjected to the same penalties for everyone else that’s caught on the District of Columbia street carrying a firearm unlawfully,'” Contee added.
Win, lose, or draw — especially “draw,” — Boebert really can’t lose. If she’s prevented from carrying her weaponry, she’ll be canonized by the National Rifle Association and every right-wing media outlet in the nation. If she’s allowed to pack heat in the chamber, she’ll probably be treated with extra civility. Her central mission is, after all, to defend herself.
Normal members of Congress of either party or others in the nation might be inclined to ask this longer-term question: Who’s going to protect us from Lauren Boebert?