It’s pretty bad when CNN has to set the record straight
Why were these men wearing pearls at a gun control hearing?
A decision by a group of male Republican New Hampshire lawmakers to wear pearls during a hearing on gun control legislation sparked accusations that they were being sexist and insensitive to the mothers of those killed in shootings.
State conservatives, however, say the lawmakers were supporting women’s rights to arm themselves for defense.
The controversy began Tuesday afternoon during debate over a bill that would restrict access to firearms from people deemed to pose an “immediate risk to themselves or others.”
Photos posted on social media show several male Republicans wearing pearls during the hearing.
And here’s Excitable Shannon
Male New Hampshire lawmakers on the hearing committee wearing pearls to mock @MomsDemand volunteers and gun safety advocates. #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/rc1S3Bj9lG
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 5, 2019
The lawmakers also were condemned on Twitter by Democratic US Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, who said the New Hampshire lawmakers were mocking the mothers.
But
But the president of the Women’s Defense League, a New Hampshire gun rights group that focuses on “training and educating women” on practical self-defense skills, disputed the accusation, saying the pearls were worn in support of their group.
“These men are supporting women and supporting women who support actual women’s rights. They are the farthest thing from sexist and there was a women lawmaker wearing them, too. That was conveniently left out,” Kimberly Morin, the president of the Women’s Defense League, told CNN Wednesday.
These are the people that Democrats want to disarm, law abiding women who want a firearm for protection.
