Police to contact Republican congresswoman after vow to carry gun to US Capitol

Starting at a new workplace for most people may involve pondering car parking spaces or nearby lunch spots, but Lauren Boebert, a member of the US Congress, has made clear her key requirement is that she carries a loaded Glock handgun to and from the Capitol each day.

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Boebert, a Republican, is one of the newest House members and has released a near three-minute online video explaining why she will bring a gun through the streets of Washington to Congress.

After putting the gun into her waistband and appearing to stride out on to the streets, Boebert says that “skyrocketing” crime in Washington, her small stature, and her constitutional rights justify her gun carrying. “One of the challenges of working in DC is that people here don’t understand how we live in real America,” Boebert said of a city that has been America’s capital since 1790.

Washington’s police chief has said his office will contact Boebert over the video, as non-residents must register guns with the DC police. Members of Congress can carry guns on the US Capitol, which is federal land, but a permit is needed to bring one through the surrounding Washington streets.

“There are no exceptions in the District of Columbia,” said the police chief, Robert Contee III, about the video. “We plan to reach out to the congresswoman’s office to make sure that she is aware what the laws of the District of Columbia are, what the restrictions are. And that congresswoman … will be subjected to the same penalties as anyone else that’s caught on a District of Columbia street carrying a firearm unlawfully.”

A spokesman for Boebert said she was not carrying the gun throughout the video shoot despite the opening scene, according to the Washington Post. Democrats who have attempted to ban the carrying of guns on the US Capitol condemned Boebert’s video as an insulting stunt.

A 1967 law that prohibits members of the public from carrying guns on Capitol grounds was signed by President Lyndon Johnson. Regulations created by the police board days later exempted members of Congress from the law but still prohibited them from carrying firearms in either legislative chamber. Lawmakers do not have to seek Capitol police permission, so it is unknown how many members carry firearms on the grounds, according to the Washington Post.

Boebert, one of Donald Trump’s most vocal adherents, has built a political persona based largely around guns. She is the owner of a restaurant called Shooters Grill in the town of Rifle, Colorado, where staff are allowed to carry guns and are given mandatory gun training.

Boebert’s initial political attacks were aimed at Beto O’Rourke when he was running for president, vowing that O’Rourke would not take her guns from her, and has since styled herself as a defender of the second amendment.