Showing off her guns! GOP congresswoman Lauren Boebert, 34, boasts her weapons are 'ready for use' after displaying unlocked arsenal in Zoom background during committee hearing
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert boasted that her arsenal of handguns and rifles were 'ready for use,' after displaying them in her Zoom background for a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Thursday.
The popular 'Room Rater' account on Twitter gave the Colorado Republican a zero out of 10 writing, 'Unsafe gun storage is no laughing matter. Is this Fascist fraulein really the best Colorado's 3rd [congressional district] can do?'
'Who says this is storage?' Boebert retorted. 'These are ready for use.'
Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert boasted about her rifle and handgun collection that she used as her Zoom backround Thursday during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing
Boebert replied, 'Who says this is storage? These are ready for use,' when the popular Room Rater twitterfeed rated her background a zero saying, ''Unsafe gun storage is no laughing matter. Is this Fascist fraulein really the best Colorado's 3rd [congressional district] can do?'
During the hearing, Boebert tried to have Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva's statements about President Donald Trump and Republicans believing COVID-19 is a hoax struck from the record, she also went on a five-minute screed about the Second Amendment, as Democratic members of the committee have banned guns from the hearing room
In another photo shared to Twitter, Boebert made clear the magazines were loaded.
Boebert previously made headlines because she's pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Boebert's comment came after the House Natural Resources Committee's organizing meeting went off the rails, prompting the Colorado congresswoman to go on a five minute-long pro-Second Amendment screed.
Committee members were spending time adding amendments to the committee's rules.
Republicans wanted greater access to the hearing room, something the Democratic lawmakers voted down.
Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat and the committee's chair, said the GOP-sponsored amendment pretended that 'the pandemic is not occurring.'
'More importantly members should oppose this amendment because it enables and encourages stunts,' Grijalva said.
'There is not procedural or legislative or in any way legitimate reason a member needs to be in the hearing room for our proceedings. Insisting on being in the room is a political decision on the backs of people who are sick and dying,' he went on.
Grijalva battled COVID-19 in August and has since recovered.
'It's an attempt undercut public health advice and pretend the pandemic is a hoax,' he continued. 'The committee will not use its resources so that members can pretend they're somehow tougher, more fearless than people who take the pandemic more seriously.'
He added that it was about 'ego' and pointed a finger at 'the former president.'
Grijalva's comments angered Boebert, who unmuted her mic and asked that the chairmans's words be taken down.
Her gun display was then visible to the public and other hearing participants.
'He's expressing intent and motive - that we believe this virus is a hoax and that we are tough, I ask for the chairman's words to be taken down,' she demanded.
After several minutes of parliamentary fussing, Grijalva agreed to withdraw 'anything that references intent.'
The Democratic majority than voted against that amendment.
Next up, was an amendment specific to guns, with Republicans asking that a rule that prohibits firearms in the committee room be taken out.
The Republicans' ranking member, Rep. Bruce Westerman, pointed out that the gun ban was 'unique to this committee.'
With the Democrats not agreeing for greater use of the committee room, Westerman also argued 'whether or not any members on our side of the aisle choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights most of our Democrat colleagues won't be here to see it anyway.'
Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, then argued why the ban needed to stay in place.
'I wish this rule was not necessary, unfortunately it is,' he said.
'But here's the reality, if somebody wants to have a shrine to their gun fetish as a Zoom backdrop in their private life they can do that, but this is our hearing room,' he noted. 'And at some point we will get past the COVID epidemic and we'll start showing up in person and our safety and our ability to conduct business civily without fearing threatened is a relavant consideration unfortunately.'
Huffman argued that lawmakers didn't need gun for protection inside the Capitol complex.
He never said Boebert's name, but added that the ban needed to stay in place so that 'whatever your fetishes or feelings are about guns, you're not going to bring them in our committee room.'
Boebert then said she wanted to speak.
She started by pointing out that 'an in-person committee hearing would solve a lot of the issues that we're seeing today,' a nod at some of the tech problems lawmakers suffered during the hearing.
Boebert than fired up her Second Amendment defense.
'Mr. Chairman, we all took an oath to uphold and secure the Constitution, every single one of us,' she said. 'The Second Amendment is very much a part of the Constitution of the United States and so it doesn't matter how you feel, how you classify it, this is an enumerated right that American citizens have to, to keep and bear arms.'
Boebert stumbled when reading the Second Amendment as she blasted Democrats for being against words like 'security.'
'The rights of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,' she said. 'That ends in a period, there's no semicolon to follow that.'
The Colorado congresswoman, like Westerman, pointed out that other committees weren't banning guns.
'How do you plan to enforce this Mr. Chair?' she asked.
'If there's no enforcement measures here, why have the rule? Will there be metal detectors installed outside the committee room doors? What is the procedure for delaying a vote as members get screened? Who is going to pay for these new metal detectors and increased security? Mr. Chairman, will you pay for this? Or will the taxpayers cover these expenses?' Boebert continued.
She then demanded her own personal security detail - and a security detail for every member who wanted to be armed but couldn't thanks to the Democrats' order.
Boebert also demanded that Grijalva pay for it.
She said Democrats have 'proven that they believe they need fences lined with miles of razor wire because there are supposed active threats against the Capitol complex.'
'So if they want razor wire, fences, security, armed security, than we should be able to protect ourselves against these threats and I want my own security detail,' she said.
'On January 6, none of us were looking to our neighbors saying, "Gosh I hope there are enough metal detectors outside,'" she continued. 'The speaker of the House was whisked away to safety while we all left vulnerable and defenseless.'
Boebert also asked if there would be storage outside the committee room for the firearm she is allowed to carry in some parts of the Capitol complex.
'With that, I would like to say, are there any other enumerated rights that will be nullified in this committee?' she continued. 'The First Amendment secures our right of religious freedom. Are Bibles forbidden in this committee? Are hijabs, are crosses prohibited in this committee?'
'Do we have the 14th Amendment? Are we not all equal under the law here in the Natural Resources Committee?' she asked the chairman. 'How about the 19th Amendment, can women vote in this committee? As a woman I need to be certain that this committee has no intention of take my rights away.'
The tour of the Constitution continued with Boebert suggesting the committee 'quarter soldiers in this committee room.'
'There's plenty of soldiers in the parking garage at Fort Pelosi in Washington, D.C.,' she said, a knock at the controversy surrounding National Guard troops being pushed into Capitol parking garages.
'Let's go ahead and forget about due process while we're at it,' she went on. 'That way we can unreasonably seize and search members of Congress before they enter the committee room, you know, kind of like what's going on in the House chambers right now,' she said, which was another poke at Pelosi who's installed metal detectors that scan members for guns before they go out on the House floor.
As Boebert's time was running out she asked members to think about what they've done.
' If we don't protect our rights in Washington, D.C. there's little hope outside of Washington, D.C. for the American people to have those rights,' the Colorado congresswoman urged.
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