Lauren Boebert has fashioned a political persona as a champion of the Second Amendment, in no small part by campaigning for a congressional seat with a Glock strapped to her thigh.
But it wasnât necessarily a political gimmick. She had been openly carrying for years before throwing her hat in the ring for Coloradoâs 3rd Congressional District seat. If Boebert had never run for political office, she would still be known as the owner of the gun-themed restaurant, Shooters Grill in Rifle, where the wait staff all wear sidearms while serving up food.
It was no surprise, then, when Boebert inquired about her right to carry a gun while working on Capitol Hill. During a freshman orientation last month, she bucked the advice of Capitol Police to forgo carrying a weapon in and around the Capitol, indicating she had every intention of doing so. Later, she told the Denver Gazette she plans to apply for a hard-to-get concealment permit to carry her Glock around Washington.
Rifle restaurant owner and ardent Second Amendment supporter Lauren Boebert pulled off the political upset of 2020 to now represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District in Washington, D.C. come January.
Kathryn Scott, special to Colorado Politics Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer Drew Romano, 25, from Boulder erupts in cheers inside the Bernie Sanders Colorado Headquarters as Sanders is reported to have won the Colorado Democratic primary. Voters take to the polls and ballots are counted during the Super Tuesday primary on March 3, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. Colorado shares a Super Tuesday primary with 14 other states and territories.
Kathryn Scott, Special to The Denver Gazette
Ernest Luning, The Denver Gazette
Kathryn Scott, Special to The Gazette
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post Pool
Citing Threat from ‘Unhinged’ Colleagues, Huffman Introduces Bill to Prevent Congress Members from Carrying Guns on Capitol Grounds
On Monday, the North Coast’s own U.S. Congressman, Rep. Jared Huffman, introduced a bill with Rep. Jackie Speier (D- Hillsborough) that would prevent members of Congress from bringing firearms onto Capitol grounds.
Huffman has been sounding off on social media about this issue in recent weeks, calling attention to the incendiary rhetoric of a few gun-loving colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
For example, he recently retweeted a message from Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins that referred to Joe Biden’s election as the culmination of a “conspiracy to dismantle America.”
It was the year superlatives fell short.
From a jam-packed January that opened in the midst of a presidential primary and plunged head-long into only the third impeachment trial in the nation s history, to February and its leap day, which couldn t explain why it felt like the month that would never end, until March arrived and time slowed to a glacial crawl â from the start, 2020 was all about jerking from one extreme to the next. Weâve had a pandemic with the flu in 1918; weâve had economic strife with the Great Recession and the Great Depression; weâve had civil unrest in the late 60s, early 70s. But we havenât had them all at the same time,â said Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen last summer, before the divisive election that also played out against that backdrop.