Anna Paulina Luna speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) on Thursday claimed to be the only member of Congress affected by gun violence, and her comment drew backlash just moments later.
Luna described her lived experiences during a joint hearing on gun stabilizing braces held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance and the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs.
“I am the only member of Congress that has both survived an armed robbery, a home invasion, a gang shooting on my school campus. And I remember being a young girl and being brought to a cousin's funeral that had been murdered, she was shot,” Luna said.
Luna went on to say that concerns about the threat gun violence poses to children are disingenuous because “We are allowing for late term abortion and these babies were born alive.”
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“So, I just want to put that in perspective that I don't believe that this is about protecting children,” Luna said.
“I believe that this is a political argument from people that have not gone through experiences and are seeking to use this platform to write legislation that's unconstitutional.”
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA), whose son Jordan Davis was fatally shot in 2012, said she was “disgusted” by her colleague’s statement.
“To make a blanket accusation that others in this room have no relative experience with violence, or gun violence, other than you is definitely very premature,” McBath asserted.
“Since my son was murdered in 2012. I have spent every day, every hour as many individuals in this room have many of our experts, many of our survivors, many of the people that are sitting in this room working on this issue … probably have far more experience relative knowledge about what it is going to take to change the culture of gun violence in this country.
“And we actively work on it every single day. So I really take offense to the language and to what you said and I would hope that you would just think more candidly about the remarks that you make going forward because as a survivor, I am very, very… I'll just say very disgusted by that remark.”
Watch the video below or at this link.