Indiana

Lawmaker shows holstered gun to students who were advocating for gun control

INDIANAPOLIS>> A video taken by a high school student shows an Indiana lawmaker flash a gun to students who were visiting the statehouse to talk to legislators about gun control.

A student from Burris Laboratory School in Muncie said she and four other students were at the state Capitol on Tuesday to participate in a day of advocacy with Students Demand Action, an arm of Everytown for Gun safety.

Alana Trissel, 17, said state Rep. Jim Lucas asked the students what brought them to the Capitol and began to defend gun rights.

Lucas, a Republican from Seymour, and the group then conversed outside the elevator, and one of the students filmed the interaction, as was first reported by the Statehouse File, a student journalism news site at Franklin College in Franklin, Ind.

In the video, Lucas told the students that people have to protect themselves and referenced failures of law enforcement to prevent mass casualties during school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and Uvalde, Texas,

In discussing places where firearms are banned, Lucas said people aren’t “truly free” unless they can defend themselves. A student asked Lucas if he means carrying a firearm. Just over six minutes into the 10-minute video, Lucas said, “I’m carrying right now,” and holds open his suit jacket, exposing a holstered handgun.

“Nothing about someone carrying a gun makes me feel safe,” a student said after Lucas lifted his jacket.

In public Facebook posts, Lucas didn’t describe his actions. He said the conversation “was respectful, but it was clearly facts, reason and logic vs. plain emotion.”

“I fear for and pity those that are being indoctrinated to fear that which is their best means of self-defense,” he added.

Trissel said that the conversation took a “turn for the worst” after Lucas showed the weapon. When asked by a student why he feels the need to carry a gun, Lucas said “to be able to defend myself.”

Trissel said that after speaking to Lucas and other state representatives about gun control, she left the Capitol feeling unheard.

— The Associated Press