An Indiana lawmaker fires a holstered gun at high school students who came to the state capitol to advocate for gun reform, leaving some teens fearing for their safety and saying they felt “threatened.” The video of the exchange revealed that he felt that way.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Lucas was discussing firearms legislation with students at the Burris Institute when he opened his coat to show the young men a gun on his hip, according to Franklin University’s student publication. . Statehouse File first reported.
“I’m carrying [a gun] Lucas reportedly told the students while opening his jacket and revealing a firearm strapped to his waist. Acquired clip Near the outlet.
“You know, that doesn’t make me feel safe,” one of the students replied. “I don’t feel safe in any way if someone has a gun. It makes me feel threatened.”
“It’s emotion. I’m speaking facts,” Lucas, who was arrested in May for drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident, tells the teens.
“The people who want to kill you don’t care about your feelings,” he added.
The high school students, members of Students Demand Action, a national young activist group dedicated to ending gun violence in the United States, traveled to the state Capitol in Indianapolis on Tuesday for the annual Advocacy Day to speak to lawmakers. They called for more efforts to protect against guns and violence. school shooting incident.
Since 1966, there have been 55 school shootings in Indiana. School shooting database from kindergarten to high school Compiled by researcher David Readman. According to the database, in the first month of 2024 alone, there were 14 school shootings across the United States, killing 17 people.
Students told State House Files that their interactions with state legislators made them feel unsafe.
“It was heartbreaking,” said Makinna Fivecoats, the 17-year-old who filmed the conversation. “At that moment, I felt really unsafe. And I really wanted that conversation to end after that.”
Lawmakers and their staff are allowed into the Capitol, but students were still upset that Lucas fired the gun.
“It almost felt like a threat to me,” Fivecoats told the magazine. “He wants to say he doesn’t mean it that way, but when he shows someone he has a gun, he can’t mean anything else.” [anything] Besides threats. ”
But Mr Lucas dismissed suggestions that he was threatening teenage girls, telling state House files that the weapon was “just showing an inanimate object.”
“I think people who want to have adult conversations need to be able to handle adult situations,” he said of the students.
The Republican later reiterated his argument for guns as self-defense on Facebook.
“I fear and sympathize with those who have been taught that fear is the best form of self-defense,” Lucas wrote with a link to the article. “People are indoctrinated to rely on government for their ‘security,’ even when the ruling is clear that government has no duty to protect us.”
His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Post.
The state representative’s action drew immediate backlash from Democrats and those rallying for school safety.
“Between passing legislation that defunds the police, expands child labor, and supports the gun control movement, Indiana Republicans have made it impossible for high school “There seems to be plenty of time to belittle or threaten them.” According to Fox59. “This supermajority is putting the interests of the gun control lobby above the interests of local governments, and even more so the safety of Hoosier students. That’s wrong, and we will check their power at the polls in November. The time has come.
Lucas had a similar interaction with voters in 2020, telling the crowd in response to a 12-year-old’s question about guns in school: Is anyone scared of that? Republic reported at that time.
According to the paper, about a third of those present (about 20 people) who answered “yes” or raised their hands in the affirmative were visibly frightened.
