From blaming mass shootings on abortion and the teaching of evolution to harassing survivors of school shootings, Republicans have a long history of deeply f–ked-up responses to America’s gun problem. And that tradition is apparently alive and well in Indiana, where a state lawmaker responded to student pleas for gun control by telling them he was packing and flashing his firearm in their faces.
The Associated Press reports that earlier this week, students from Burris Laboratory School traveled to the state Capitol for a day of advocacy with Students Demand Action, a branch of Everytown for Gun Safety. There, state representative Jim Lucas asked the group why they were there and then started to defend the rights of gun owners, telling them people should be able to protect themselves and citing failures of law enforcement to stop school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas. He also claimed that in places where firearms are restricted, people aren’t “truly free,” and then, according to video taken by one of the students, declared, “I’m carrying right now,” opening his suit jacket to show a holstered handgun. (Indiana lawmakers and members of their staff are, inexplicably, allowed to carry handguns in and around the Capitol.)
Speaking to the AP about the incident, one student said the conversation took a “turn for the worst” after he showed them he was armed. “Since a state legislator had shown a weapon, I felt all the more powerless,” she said. “I felt scared. I felt alone. I was timid and almost petrified with fear.”
Lucas did not respond to requests for comment from the AP, which reports that in Facebook posts following the interaction, he claimed the conversation “was respectful, but it was clearly facts, reason and logic vs. plain emotion,” adding, “I fear for, and pity those that are being indoctrinated to fear that which is their best means of self defense. People are also being indoctrinated to depend on government for their ‘safety,’ even when shown that government has clearly ruled that government doesn’t have the duty to protect us.” Lucas is, not surprisingly, a proponent of loosening gun restrictions, and in a 2021 social media post, wrote, “Sweet Baby Jesus, I LOVE this country” in response to a story about 187,585 gun sales on Black Friday.