Today was the first day that Republicans took back the House of Representatives, and they came in with a shopping list of priorities, number one being to remove the metal detectors that were installed after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2020.
Although their Party is in shambles, having regained power in Congress by the slimmest majority after the much-anticipated red wave failed to materialize, and so internally divided as to be unable to elect a Speaker to lead them, they were nevertheless eager to remove what has become the symbol of the new GOP and their steady movement to the far right.
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, an avid gun activist who advocates even allowing children to have guns, and who has been open about her intent to carry a concealed weapon in the Capitol building, told reporters she had been “waiting for this day for a long time.”
“I think [the metal detectors] need to be removed from the Capitol, filled with Tannerite and blown up,” she added.
Boebert is one of a handful of Republicans who have criticized the metal detectors since they were first erected. Just one week after the riots took place, Boebert was reportedly “in a standoff with Capitol Police” after refusing to allow them to search her bag when the machine began beeping.
“I am legally permitted to carry my firearm in Washington, D.C. and within the Capitol complex,” she tweeted at the time. “Metal detectors outside of the House would not have stopped the violence we saw last week — it’s just another political stunt by Speaker Pelosi.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have lambasted those who refused to use the metal detectors, arguing that lawmakers should be subject to the same scrutiny as anyone else entering the government building.
“Do these people not understand that literally everyone else has to go through metal detectors to get in here?” tweeted Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, one week after the 2021 riots. “Average people do not get to bring guns into the United States Capitol in normal times. Get over yourselves.”
After they were installed, members of Congress who refused to comply with the metal detector screening were fined thousands of dollars, though some flouted the security measure anyway.
Two of those fined — Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Rep. Andrew S. Clyde of Georgia — filed a federal lawsuit in June 2021, claiming the use of metal detectors to screen members of Congress was unconstitutional and that it was a way of harassing Republicans, The Washington Post reported.
A federal judge ultimately upheld the lawmakers’ fines, saying the issue was an internal House matter.
