On Tuesday, reports came out lambasting New Hampshire state reps for wearing pearls in opposition to gun safety advocates during a public hearing on a “red flag” law that would allow family members and law enforcement to take firearms from someone deemed a danger to themselves or those around them. The gun safety advocacy group Mothers Demand Action were at the hearing, wearing red shirts, and recounting very tough stories of tragedy—all gun-related. Early reporting on the event placed all of the onus on wearing the pearls and the disrespect they represented on the Republican legislators. However, Republicans and Second Amendment “patriots” were quick to point out that the pearls representatives were wearing were given to them by the pro-gun group Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire. Does this make them less offensive?
An explanation of the pearls was given by the group’s president Kimberly Morin who said “At the hearing for constitutional carry in reps hall, three of us were dressed in business professional clothes, wearing pearls, and someone from Moms Demand said they wouldn’t testify because they felt they were in front of a firing squad.” Try re-reading that to yourself and wonder what exactly that means.
New Hampshire State Rep. John Burt had some strong words to those women whose children were killed by firearms, wanting to push their public safety measures on God-fearing inhabitants of the Granite state. In an email to Talking Points Memo, Burt explained that “the anti-gun out-of-state lady and the other anti-gun folks need to get over themselves.” But Burt was not done as he had only put a couple of toes into his mouth at this point. “Who does not want to protect their children? O ya, some anti-gun folks do not.”
Burt didn’t wear pearls because he said he forgot and left them at home. TPM identified Republican Reps. Daryl Abbas, Scott Wallace, and David Welch as three dummies wearing the pearls during the hearing.
You can see state Rep. Burt sticking his foot in his mouth a couple of weeks ago by making a strange race joke during a vote on gun-free zones at schools. Seriously.