Arizona Republican state Sen. Lori Klein stirred the debate over gun rights when she unabashedly carried her raspberry-pink .380 Ruger into the state Senate two days after U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was
shot, writes Richard Ruelas of
The Arizona Republic.
She had the gun, which sports a laser sight, in her purse “alongside her lipstick and keys,” and a scene unfolded when security attempted to block her from bringing it inside. She prevailed after a colleague backed her, and was able to hold onto it. It was the freshman lawmaker’s first day on the Senate floor.
“Some lawmakers decried her action, reflecting the attitudes of those who question the need for a gun in a policed metropolitan area,” writes Ruelas. “Those who think more guns invite more violence. Who think that government has a definite place in regulating the time and place in which weapons are allowed.”
Ruelas says Klein showed off the gun, which lacks a safety switch, to a reporter outside the chambers by pointing the laser scope at his chest.
"I just didn't have my hand on the trigger," she said.
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