Salon reports, but most of what you need to know is in the annotated photo above:
In a video reviewed by Salon and apparently recorded on July 25, the 8-year-old son of Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., can be seen singing, dancing and playing with cigarette lighters — while left alone in a room a few feet away from a high-capacity rifle. This would appear to violate a new Colorado state law, under which gun owners are required to store their deadly weapons in a gun safe, with a trigger or cable lock, whenever the owner is aware, or should reasonably be aware, that a “juvenile or a resident who is ineligible to possess a firearm can gain access to the firearm.”
Freshman GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert launched her bid for public office as a then-unknown owner of a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colorado, by traveling 200 miles to Denver to call out Democratic Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke over banning assault weapons. Boebert campaigned with a Glock pistol on her hip everywhere it was legal to openly carry one, which is everywhere in CD-3 but not in Washington, D.C.–giving Boebert another opportunity to go viral with her gun on green-screen display.
In February, Boebert inexplicably appeared in a virtual hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee with an over-the-top number of firearms awkwardly stacked up on shelves behind her, revolting her colleagues but earning lots of adoring pro-gun press:
Everybody remembers Rep. Boebert’s pithy rejoinder to critics about those weapons being “safely stored,” right?
Who says this is storage? These are ready for use. https://t.co/y9fxckjcGl
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 18, 2021
Salon reports that several now-deleted Tiktok videos shot over the course of a month or more this past July and August by Boebert’s eight-year-old in show firearms which can be readily seen in the background, including a long rifle that apparently didn’t move between videos. While the child filming doesn’t pick up the guns in view, he was apparently doing the next best thing for unattended children–playing with lighters!
In one video, Boebert’s son says that Donald Trump “is the real president, not Joe Biden — Joe Biden sucks.” Then he explains, “My mom is Lauren Boebert” before describing a red cigarette lighter as Biden and a green lighter as Trump. In several other videos, Boebert’s son lights and relights the lighters, tossing them on the floor behind him towards the rifle…
The videos are all gone now, but this must have been the most heartwarming child talent performance since Balloon Boy’s 2009 Youtube single “Not Pussified.” Which you can’t watch either, because sometime between 2009 and the present day Balloon Boy realized it was not casting him in the most auspicious light.
In 2021, Colorado passed House Bill 1106 requiring firearms in homes with either minor children or adults legally prohibited from possessing firearms to be safely stored via at minimum a lock on the weapon’s action if not locking them up in a gun safe. That law took effect on July 1, so if these videos were shot when claimed they could be direct evidence of a crime. In addition to plainly unsafe storage of firearms, we have to think child protective services in Garfield County might want to look into eight-year-olds playing with fire unsupervised. You’d hate for that to become an issue that the fire department (or God forbid the Forest Service) has to deal with.
Because Lauren Boebert’s public image is more or less a continuous rolling provocation constantly being piled on with fresh outrages for the express purpose of keeping her critics off-balance, what should be career-ending or at least severely damaging incidents don’t register like they should. But stop and think for a moment about someone who has so fervently pushed gun rights as a defining issue, making a big deal about carrying one with her everywhere she goes, stacking up so many guns to show off in an official hearing that it looked like they were going to fall on her, daring her critics to complain–being this irresponsible with guns and her own children.
It’s nothing short of abominable, and Boebert’s fellow gun owners should be among the most angry.
She’s making fools of them too.
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weißer Müll
OK — that’s the kind of stupidity that one would expect in that household . . .
Still, if the kid “was left in the room alone,” who was filming/photographing the kid (and, likely also coaching and encouraging his made-for-camera behavior)? Was he using a selfie-
stick-rifle? . . .My opinion is that this is all likely stink bait, and you’re playing the part of the suckers swimmingly . . .
What would the logic (yes, I know this is the Boeberts we're talking about) for them to bait people? What would that accomplish?
The thrill of being able to cackle, “Owned me another bunch of libs today! Pew-pew!!”?? . . .
. . . the same thing we do every day,
Pinky. . .. . . besides, it’s not like she’s ever got anything better to do all day???
. . . I got no logical explanations for illogical behaviors?
(I do know pictures and videos rarely take themselves.)
I had the same thoughts as you. They have a low weird cunning which would think this is great play acting to irritate the non-gun humpers
It's all fun and games until social services comes knockin.
How is she not being arrested for child endangerment. How is she allowed to have custody of a kid
She’s well protected by the Garfield County sheriff, one of her earliest supporters.
What do you expect from a county named after a cartoon cat?
Do you know what "responsible" adults were in the house or in "control" of the kids? Boebert may have a perfect alibi … she could have been on television or someone's podcast or in her DC office, or maybe even on the House floor.
I think you nailed it, Dio. Should I be worried that you’re starting to think like Klannie Oakley??
I'd be worried if her "thinking" ever happens to progress beyond anything but just "pew-pew," and "look-at-me" . . .