Video shows lawmaker showing holstered gun to students who were advocating for gun control
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INDIANAPOLIS, Feb 1, (AP): A video taken by a high school student shows an Indiana lawmaker flash a gun to students who were visiting the statehouse to talk to legislators about gun control.
A student from Burris Laboratory School in Muncie told The Associated Press that she and four other students were at the state Capitol on Tuesday to participate in a day of advocacy with Students Demand Action, an arm of Everytown for Gun safety. Alana Trissel, 17, said state Rep Jim Lucas asked the students what brought them to the Capitol and began to defend gun rights.
Lucas, a Republican from Seymour, and the group then conversed outside the elevator and one of the students filmed the interaction, as was first reported by the Statehouse File, a student journalism news site at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana.
In the video, Lucas told the students that people have to protect themselves and referenced failures of law enforcement to prevent mass casualties during school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas,
In discussing places where firearms are banned, Lucas said people aren’t “truly free” unless they can defend themselves. A student off camera asked Lucas if he means carrying a firearm. Just over six minutes into the 10-minute video, Lucas said, “I’m carrying right now,” and holds open his suit jacket exposing a holstered handgun. It was not immediately clear what kind of gun Lucas was carrying.
“Nothing about someone carrying a gun makes me feel safe,” a student said off camera after Lucas lifted his jacket.
The Associated Press could not immediately reach Lucas on Wednesday and left messages with his press secretary and at his Facebook page. Phone numbers in public records listed with his name were not connected.
In public Facebook posts on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, Lucas didn’t describe his actions. He said the conversation “was respectful, but it was clearly facts, reason and logic vs. plain emotion.”
“I fear for, and pity those that are being indoctrinated to fear that which is their best means of self-defense,” he added in a post Wednesday, in which he also linked to news articles about the Parkland and Uvalde killings in the comments section. “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.”
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