Liberals have a cow if they see anyone carrying a gun in public, so it’s not surprising to see how they reacted when Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican, apparently set off the metal detectors outside of the House chamber. Authorities stopped Harris when a policeman “saw a firearm on [his] person” and he never made it onto the floor while armed, a Capitol official told The Baltimore Sun.
There’s a ban on carrying guns into the House and Senate chambers, the Speaker’s Lobby, and a few other rooms in the Capitol. Members of Congress can carry them in the Rotunda and other public areas in the Capitol building. Members are allowed to carry guns and store them in their offices in the nearby office buildings.
But the rules don’t allow anyone to carry guns into the House chamber. Republicans had generally been avoiding the metal detectors, but Rep. Harris, who perhaps forgot he was carrying, got caught.
Before leaving, Harris tried to pass the gun to New York Rep. John Katko, who refused to hold it since he is not licensed to do so, according to a Huffington Post reporter who witnessed the incident.
Harris returned to the House chamber security checkpoint about 10 minutes later, making it through without setting off the magnetometer, HuffPost reported.
Democrat hysteria on guns of any kind is at a fever pitch after the Capitol attack, but expecting a member of the opposition to shoot another member is extremely paranoid.
Speaking of paranoid, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “We still don’t yet feel safe around other members of Congress. One just tried to bring a gun on the floor of the House today.”
Ocasio-Cortez said any “responsible gun owner” would know that you shouldn’t hand a gun to another person “without clearing it.”
“Because his and his family’s lives have been threatened by someone who has been released awaiting trial, for security reasons, the Congressman never confirms whether he nor anyone else he’s with are carrying a firearm for self-defense,” Harris’s office said.
Maybe Harris was bringing a gun to the floor to protect everyone in case of another assault.
“I don’t really care what they say their intentions are. I care what the impact of their actions are and the impact is to put 435 members of Congress in danger,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The moment you bring a gun onto the House floor in violation of rules you put everyone around you in danger. It is irresponsible. It is reckless, but beyond that, it is in violation of rules.”
How could Harris put “435 members of Congress in danger”? The reports didn’t mention what kind of weapon it was, but don’t most semi-automatic handguns hold between 6 and 18 bullets in a magazine? He’d have to be weighed down with extra ammunition to threaten all 435 members of Congress.
Why is it “reckless”? Why would everyone around you be in danger? I don’t know a lot about guns, but do firearms have minds of their own and just sort of go off whenever they feel like shooting? Or does someone have to, like, pull a trigger or something?
What AOC is refusing to say — but what she’s clearly hinting at — is that she believes a Republican member of Congress will bring a weapon to the House floor and shoot a bunch of Democrats — especially her. The improbability of something like that happening is self-evident. Congressmen may be strutting, vainglorious, power-hungry, wannabe dictators, but insane murderers they are not.
Perhaps AOC should bring a few extra diapers to the House floor, just in case.
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