Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-CO) must have never heard the phrase “the pot calling the tea kettle black” when she decided to make a distasteful joke about Chicago’s current gun violence crisis ahead of the 2024 Democratic Convention Conference being held in the Windy City later this summer.
In an early morning post shared to her Twitter account on Tuesday, April 11, the Congresswoman — who once encouraged her employees at her since-closed gun-themed restaurant to openly carry firearms — wondered whether her political counterparts would be providing “complimentary” bulletproof vests at the upcoming gathering.
However, what seemed even more concerning about Boebert’s remarks is that she used the moment to poke fun not only at her Democratic peers, but the safety of Chicago, while her own state of Colorado ranks higher in gun-related deaths than Illinois.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite what Boebert may think about the state, Illinois’ Firearm Mortality Rate ranks as 14.1% per 100,000 total population. By comparison, Colorado outranks Illinois, at 15.4%.
Boebert’s comment came amid protests and discussions surrounding gun reform in the wake of yet another mass shooting in America, including last month’s tragedy that left six people dead — three of them children — when a heavily-armed suspect opened fire at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, TN.
The massacre ultimately came to an end when the shooter, who the authorities said was a former student at the school, was shot and killed by the police.
The violence trickled into the new month when on April 10, a 25-year-old male killed at least five people, some of whom were his co-workers at Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, Ky. The assailant in this incident, who also live-streamed the carnage, was also gunned down by officers.
