In the last few days, several House MAGA Republicans were seen sporting new nifty AR-15 lapel pins. Not American flags or congressional seal pins, the usual fare, but tiny AR-15 pins. Once again, it’s evident that they’re either willfully callous or purely evil.
Freshman Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos of New York were both photographed wearing the pins this week.
Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez demanded to know the origin of the pins and where congressmembers were getting them.
RELATED STORY: ‘My daughter’s gone. I have to fix it for others’: Mom of Uvalde shooting victim Lexi Rubio
Through her spokesperson Edie Heipel, Luna told Talking Points Memo that the pin “is about sponsoring a gun bill and has nothing to do with whatever ‘Blue Anon’ conspiracy theories are being floated on Capitol Hill.”
In case you’re curious, Blue Anon is a term used by conservatives to attack those pushing “left-wing conspiracy theories,” according to Newsweek. The term has been used by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and MAGA host Candace Owens.
As for the “gun bill” Clyde mentioned, the only gun bills being introduced are by Democrats. On Jan. 31, Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts joined a group of 186 members of Congress, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, to reintroduce Ethan’s Law, “legislation requiring gun owners to safely and securely store their firearms,” according to Markey’s website.
The new bill is named in honor of Ethan Song, a teen from Guilford, Connecticut, who was tragically killed by a neighbor’s gun in 2018. “The bill would create federal requirements for safe gun storage and establish strong penalties for any violations.”
Turns out the man responsible for giving out the pins is Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, a total gun enthusiast who Business Insider reported owns a firearm store in Athens, Georgia. His stake in the store is between $5 and $25 million, and it earned the congressman between $1 million and $5 million in income in 2020—the same year that more Americans died of gun-related injuries than any year on record, according to Pew Research.
He said Friday that he hands out the pins to “remind people of the Second Amendment of the Constitution and how important it is in preserving our liberties.”
In an average year in the U.S., 46,620 people die by guns, a rate of 12.2 deaths per 100,000 people, EveryStat reports. No one needs an AR-15 to hunt. In 2014, John Paul Stevens, who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010, wrote an essay for The Washington Post. In it, he wrote that the Second Amendment just needs five more words to be fixed once and for all.
The original (and current) amendment reads, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The new version, Stevens writes, should be:
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed.”
What Clyde should be passing out is pins acknowledging that it is National Gun Violence Survivor’s Week, or maybe pins with the names of gun violence victims. Names like Alexandria “Lexi” Aniya Rubio, who, along with 18 of her classmates, was murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, when an 18-year-old student opened fire on them with an AR-style rifle.
“I've spoken with [Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut], who is a champion for gun reform. Other times, I met with Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Cornyn, who told me, this just isn't possible. My answer to that is if they won't work to save the lives of children, then they just have to be voted out,” says Kimberly Mata-Rubio, mom of Lexi. “Why we would choose guns over children is not something I can comprehend.”
