During Thursday’s tense House Judiciary Committee hearing, one Republican lawmaker flaunted his guns over Zoom, while Democrats slammed their GOP colleagues for letting mass shootings to occur because to their opposition to gun control measures.
On the aftermath of mass shootings in Buffalo, Robb Elementary School in Uvalve, Texas, and Wednesday night’s killings in Tulsa, lawmakers attended a markup session for the ‘Protecting Our Kids Act,’ which combines eight pieces of legislation in the current Congressional gun control drive.
Republicans stood solid in their opposition.
Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida argued that the law limiting high-capacity magazines would have unintended effects – and he held up his own guns to demonstrate, while participating in the hearing virtually.
‘I hope that gun isn’t loaded,’ Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee uttered at the sight, with Steube responding, ‘I’m at my house, I can do whatever I want with my guns.’
Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado argued that AR-15s, the gun style of choice in most recent U.S. mass shootings, had practical purposes.
‘In rural Colorado, an AR-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens,’ Buck said. ‘That is the gun of choice for killing a fox.’
The bill lawmakers are debating does not ban AR-15s.
epublican Rep. Tom McClintock of California suggested that ‘woke district attorneys’ aren’t using the laws already on the books – bringing up a favorite GOP punching bag, first son Hunter Biden.
‘Hunter Biden illegally acquired a handgun despite being an admitted drug addict. A handgun that ended up being taken out of a public trash can 500 feet from a school. He also lied on his firearms application,’ McClintock said. ‘Nobody’s prosecuting him.’
McClintock was referring to Biden answering no on a 2018 firearms permit to the question, ‘Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?’
Biden had already been discharged from the Navy Reserve over his cocaine use.