At Least He's Not Your Pistol-Packing Representative (This Time)

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by: Colorado Pols

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC).

The Asheville Citizen Times reports via USA TODAY, it’s a story Colorado political observers know all too well:

U.S. House member Madison Cawthorn had his gun taken by airport police and will likely face a federal fine and loss of a special security status, local and federal officials said.

The Republican congressman representing Western North Carolina’s 11th District was attempting to board a plane Feb. 13 when Transportation Security Administration workers found an unloaded gun in his carry-on bag, along with a loaded magazine, according to Asheville Regional Airport officials.

The weapon was described in a redacted incident report and police radio traffic recordings as a “Glock 9mm handgun.”

Cawthorn, whose spokesman responded to questions July 30 saying he brought the gun by mistake, was not charged with any crime, according to reports and other information on the incident obtained this month through a public records request. That is a normal outcome, said spokeswoman Tina Kinsey.

Freshman GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, doing his best to keep up with the cavalcade of crazy from his fellow freshman Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, really loves his guns and makes a big deal about carrying one everywhere–including possibly into the U.S. House on January 6th. Of course, safe and legal gun ownership starts (we assume) with knowing where your gun is at all times, and to just plain forget that you’ve brought one into an airport security line is a lapse that should result in more punishment than it typically does.

“Typically,” you ask? Well, yes readers, if you haven’t followed Colorado politics for as long as we have you might not know that Colorado Republicans have made irresponsibility with their guns a recurring theme. In December of 2017, then-state Rep. Lori Saine was busted at a DIA security checkpoint with a loaded pistol in her bag. And in 2014, former Rep. Jared Wright left a loaded handgun unattended in a House committee hearing room. Both incidents raised questions about the policy at the Colorado Capitol allowing lawmakers to carry concealed weapons in a building where everyone else has to trust the Colorado State Patrol.

The next year Rep. Saine went right back to sponsoring legislation to weaken Colorado’s gun laws like nothing happened, so don’t expect Rep. Cawthorn to suddenly become contrite over gun safety. For the rest of us, though, it’s another chance to learn an important lesson before somebody gets hurt.

Call it leadership by cautionary tale.

14 thoughts on “At Least He’s Not Your Pistol-Packing Representative (This Time)”

MattC says:

August 2, 2021 at 9:01 am

My memory is there was also a lawmaker who was driving around capitol hill who claimed she could not be detained or cited because the legislature was in session.

Maybe that was just alcohol related. I thought there was a gun involved.

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1. bullshit! says:
  
  August 2, 2021 at 9:07 am
  
  Laura Bradford, stand and be recognized!
  
  https://www.coloradopols.com/diary/17212/bradford-no-charges-but
  
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  1. MattC says:
    
    August 2, 2021 at 9:14 am
    
    Worse than I remembered.
    
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Sparky says:

August 2, 2021 at 9:04 am

Well great, now Colorado's own Klannie Oakley is going to have to one-up him by trying to get on a plane with a rocket launcher as the ultimate expression of her FREEDOMS.

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MichaelBowman says:

August 2, 2021 at 9:36 am

Is there a more perfect poster child for today’s Trumplican party? (except for the demon spawn of a WWF wrestler? The scorned lover of a tantric sex guru? A Florida pedophille? A half-governor who thinks God talks to her?)

The Ignominious Deceits of Congressman Cawthorn

Cawthorn became disabled after a 2014 car crash left him paralyzed from the waist down. By Cawthorn’s own telling, he was a successful business owner headed to the Naval Academy before his injury tragically reordered his life. As it turns out, neither claim is true. The Asheville Watchdog reported that Cawthorn had already been rejected from the Naval Academy before his accident. And Cawthorn’s real-estate investment firm, SPQR Holdings LLC, which he only formed in August 2019, reported no income on its tax documents, and Cawthorn was the sole employee.

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1. unnamed says:
  
  August 2, 2021 at 9:48 am
  
  Who's the half-governor? Kristi (Governor Karen) Noem?
  
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  1. MichaelBowman says:
    
    August 2, 2021 at 9:49 am
    
    Palin (she stepped down in the middle of her term, not the least of her issues being ethic complaints)
    
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    1. MichaelBowman says:
      
      August 2, 2021 at 9:55 am
      
      Remember this doozy?
      
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      1. Genghis says:
        
        August 2, 2021 at 10:01 am
        
        lol Those were the days.
        
        It's hard to overstate the size of the bullet we dodged back in 2008. Imagine the Palins at some swanky state dinner and ~~Barstool~~ Bristol, hammered and shoeless, stumbling toward Angela Merkel screaming "Whatchoo lookin' at, bitch?"
        
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        unnamed says:
        
        August 2, 2021 at 10:19 am
        
        True. Though, she paved the way for the shit show we need to extricate ourselves from.
        
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    2. MichaelBowman says:
      
      August 2, 2021 at 10:03 am
      
      Or the time she thought she was talking to ~~God~~ the President of France?
      
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spaceman2021 says:

August 2, 2021 at 11:38 am

Oh good, another "responsible" gun owner

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JohnInDenver says:

August 2, 2021 at 11:52 am

And in another form of outrage and relief she is not a Colorado legislator…. AP story now up on Hearing begins for lawmaker who shared rape accuser's name

[my emphasis] An Idaho lawmaker accused of violating ethics rules by publicizing the name of an alleged rape victim in disparaging social media posts — and then allegedly misleading lawmakers about her actions — said in an ethics hearing Monday that she did nothing wrong and claimed the allegations against her were politically motivated.

Republican Rep. Priscilla Giddings became the subject of two ethics complaints by about two dozen lawmakers after she publicized the rape accuser’s name, photo and personal details about her life in April by sharing links to an far-right news article on social media and in a newsletter to constituents.

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Diogenesdemar says:

August 2, 2021 at 5:42 pm

Just wondering,

. . . would “forgetting” and leaving an unloaded glock and a loaded magazine in your carry-on bag at home (. . . as if that’s what really happened? . . .) constitute “safe storage” here in Colorado???

(. . . asking for some “responsible” Colorado gun owner friends and legislators.)

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