Lauren Boebert ‘gun shrine’ zooms up fire

A Republican member of the US congress has raised eyebrows after appearing at a Zoom committee meeting with an arsenal of guns strategically displayed in her background.

Ready for use: Lauren Boebert on Friday. Picture: AFP

A Republican member of the US congress raised eyebrows on Friday when she appeared at a Zoom committee meeting with an arsenal of guns strategically displayed in her background.

Lauren Boebert was among representatives attending an organising meeting of the House natural resources committee being held by video because of the pandemic. When Ms Boebert appeared on camera from her home, she was seated in front of a bookshelf which featured at least three rifles and a handgun.

“I always thought my dirty dishes piled up and accumulating bacteria were the most dangerous thing in a Zoom background,” tweeted a Democrat member of the committee, Katie Porter.

Ms Boebert, 34, is a gun rights activist who was elected to the House of Representatives from the western state of Colorado in last November. An outspoken supporter of former president Donald Trump, she owns a restaurant called “Shooters Grill” in the town of Rifle, Colorado, where the employees openly carry firearms.

Soon after her arrival in Washington, Ms Boebert announced her intention to carry a gun to work and she has criticised the deployment of metal detectors at the entrances to the House chamber. Among the items on the committee agenda was organising in-person meetings again. Ms Boebert criticised rules banning representatives from bringing firearms to the floor of the House or to committee hearings.

“This rule is absurd,” she said, and an “infringement on our constitutional rights.” She claimed that she and other congress members were left “vulnerable and defenceless” during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Representative Jared Huffman of California, a Democrat member of the committee, spoke up in support of the ban.

“Here’s the reality. If somebody wants to have a shrine to their gun fetish as a Zoom backdrop in their private life, they can do that. But this is our hearing room,” Mr Huffman said.

Room Rater, a Twitter feed that analyses the backgrounds of Zoom participants, took note of the unusual backdrop used by Boebert, the mother of four children. “Unsafe gun storage is no laughing matter,” it said.

“Who says this is storage?” Boebert tweeted back. “These are ready for use.”

AFP