A push by nearly two dozen House Democrats to change a long-standing rule that allows members of Congress to carry firearms in the Capitol is being met with with a challenge by Representative-elect Lauren Boebert, the outspoken Second Amendment advocate who declared that she planned to take full advantage of that rule once she arrived in D.C.

Boebert joins me on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. to talk about Rep. Jared Huffman’s demand that congressional leadership revoke the 1967 rule that barred the general public and most employees at the Capitol from carrying, but exempted members of Congress. As the representative wrote in his letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy;

Ultimately, the current regulations create needless risk for Members of Congress, their staff, members of the Capitol Police, and visitors to the Capitol grounds. A provision in the Rules package directing the Capitol Police Board to ensure that Member of Congress may not possess firearms on Capitol grounds would ensure clarity surrounding firearms policy and protect all individuals in and around the Capitol.

Boebert says that’s nonsense, and pointed to the 2017 attack on Republican members of Congress that left Rep. Steve Scalise gravely injured. That attack is one reason why Boebert has already gone through the required training to get a concealed carry license in Washington, D.C. Boebert doesn’t just plan on carrying at the Capitol. She plans on carrying everywhere she’s allowed to by law.

If Huffman’s real concern was about the storage of firearms in Congressional offices, he would have asked Pelosi to include a rule requiring firearms be locked away unless under the direct control of the House or Senate member. Instead, he demanded the disarming those members of Congress who choose to carry. Boebert says Huffman’s move against “capitol carry” is just part of a broader agenda to attack the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.

“I told Beto O’Rourke in Aurora, Colorado ‘Hell no, you’re not taking our guns,” Boebert reminded me during our interview, referring to her confrontation of the then-presidential candidate over his “Hell yes we’re taking your guns” comment.

“I meant it,” she emphazised. “If I need to go to Speaker Pelosi herself and tell her the same thing I told Beto, so be it. I’m here to make sure we secure the rights of the American people above all else.”

Boebert says she’s circulating a letter of her own to send to Nancy Pelosi and House leadership, urging them to ignore Huffman’s demand for a gun ban. We’ll have to wait to see if Pelosi takes up Huffman’s demand when the House convenes on January 3rd, as well as how many other lawmakers sign on to Boebert’s letter, but I think we can go out on a limb and predict that regardless of the outcome, Rep. Huffman’s likely to give Boebert a wide berth in the halls of the Capitol and in the House chamber.