Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., pulled out a loaded gun during a meeting with constituents on Friday to make a point about gun safety.
While speaking on gun violence, Norman told the Post and Courier that he pulled out his .38-caliber Smith & Wesson and set it on a table as he spoke.
“I’m not going to be a Gabby Giffords,” Norman said, referring to the former Arizona congresswoman who has been a leading voice in the fight for stricter gun laws after surviving a mass shooting herself in Tuscon, Ariz., in 2011. “I don’t mind dying, but whoever shoots me better shoot well or I’m shooting back.”
Norman told the news outlet that he brought the gun to show his constituents that “guns don’t shoot people, people shoot guns.”
Multiple attendees told the Post and Courier that they found the congressman’s display unsettling.
“And then he chose to take the gun out and put it on the table not knowing if any of us had mental health issues,” said Lori Carter, a public school teacher who attended the meeting. “What was to prevent me from leaning across the table to take that gun? So to me, it was contradictory.”
