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Boebert may have broken law by letting juvenile carry gun at Shooters Grill

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July 24, 2020, 7:42 am

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Colorado Times Recorder. Lauren Boebert is the Republican candidate taking on Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in the Nov. 3 election for the 3rd Congressional District, which includes the western two-thirds of Eagle County.

In apparent violation of state and federal law, Colorado congressional candidate Lauren Boebert allowed an under-age server at her restaurant in Rifle to carry a gun.

Lauren Boebert

Boebert, who toppled Congressman Scott Tipton in a Republican primary last month, told a juvenile server to pack heat at her diner, Shooters Grill, just like the adult wait staff do, according to a server currently featured on the restaurant’s website.

Trouble is, it’s apparently not legal.

Colorado law bans juveniles from possessing a handgun, and exceptions do not allow gun-carrying as part of a job serving “Ballistic Chicken” and “Smoking Gun” brisket, as featured on the menu. A similar federal law has an exception for a minor possessing a gun “in the course of employment,” but it’s tough to conclude the exception would reasonably apply in this case.

Under Colorado law, if any person knows a juvenile is possessing a gun illegally, as in Boebert’s case, and “fails to make reasonable efforts to prevent such violation,” they commit the crime of “permitting a juvenile to possess a handgun.”

It’s not known if Boebert provided her under-age waitress with the handgun, and she didn’t return a call for comment on this article.

But whether Boebert gave her server the gun or not, she’d face a class 4 felony–either for “unlawfully providing a handgun to a juvenile” or for “permitting a juvenile to possess a handgun.”

Gun-safety proponents were dismayed that Boebert would allow a minor to carry a gun in her diner, and it shows she’s unfit for Congress, they said.

“This is not how responsible gun owners behave and not who we want to represent us in Congress,” said Robin Halloran, a volunteer with the Colorado chapter of Moms Demand Action, a group backing gun-safety laws, and a resident of the congressional district Boebert wants to represent. “This is exactly why we are working so hard from today until November to elect gun sense candidates like Diane Mitsch Bush.”

Reached by phone, Tom Mauser, whose son died in the 1999 Columbine school shooting, called it “shameful” for Boebert to allow a minor to carry guns in her restaurant.

“There is something clearly wrong if a minor is allowed to carry a gun in a restaurant,” Mauser told the Colorado Times Recorder. “And how shameful that their boss is running for Congress.”

Boebert’s hard-line stance on guns, including her policy of arming waitresses at her restaurant, has drawn wide media coverage, particularly among right-wing outlets both locally and nationally.

Boebert’s appearances on conservative media platforms have been credited, in part, for her victory over Tipton.

She advocates far-right stances on a range of issues beyond guns, including mask-wearing (strictly optional), climate change (a narrative that allows the government to make money), abortion (Ban it.), Obamacare (Repeal it.), immigration (against immigrant farm labor), QAnon (hopes it’s real but later said she’s not a follower), and Black Lives Matter (BLM protesters in Rifle were “paid and bussed in.”)

Trump allegedly said of Boebert, “You know, with her winning, I think it’s safe to say we just won Colorado.” 

Tipton, Boebert’s vanquished Republican primary opponent, was a hard-right Republican and co-chair of the Colorado Trump campaign, but he didn’t criticize Boebert during the campaign.

During the primary campaign, in a KHOW radio appearance (here at 12:30), Republican Dick Wadhams asked Tipton about Boebert, who now faces Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush.

“I have always invoked Reagan’s eleventh commandment, that it isn’t useful to attack other Republicans, simply because the philosophical differences that we are going to have with our Democrat counterparts certainly ought to outweigh that,” Tipton replied. “We try to be able to stay focused on the work that we are doing.”

6 Responses to Boebert may have broken law by letting juvenile carry gun at Shooters Grill

  1. Risingdogstar Reply

    July 24, 2020 at 9:59 am

    This original incident was from 2015. But she is open now indoor seating when shes not supposed to and there is a HS aged server now…I wont be go to her restaurant to see if the girl is carrying. I bet she is. #dontvoteboebert

  2. mer Reply

    July 24, 2020 at 10:54 am

    So, if she “allows” these serious infractions aka breaking the law, why don’t the law officers charged with enforcing these laws arrest her !??

  3. Neither4orAgainst. Reply

    July 24, 2020 at 7:13 pm

    Please for the love of Whatever power you do or do not believe in.READ THE LAW. It also states that a minor may possess a firearm on private property with permission of the owner. As well as to and from a sanctioned target range. Please read the full law before jumping on a false claim that she or anyone broke the Law.

    • Tommy Reply

      July 25, 2020 at 11:41 am

      That’s not what the law says. Under 18 must be at their resident or private property under control of their parents/guardian/grandparents. Is Shooters owned by her parents/grandparents?

      The article links to the law.

  4. Matthew Trotter Reply

    July 24, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    My kind of gal. Not afraid to peacefully protest these asinine freedom stripping laws. It’s just one of many reasons I’m all in for this babe. She’s got the potential to be the next Sarah Palin. I’d like to see her in an American flag bikini with a .50 cal. in hand.

  5. KItty Grabbor Reply

    September 6, 2020 at 9:30 am

    I’ve heard Lauren Boebert speak. She’s definitely not impressive. She just regurgitates the standard right wing talking points such as OAC, “the squad,” and socialism. Boebert was arrested for interfering with police when they trying to deal with some underage drinkers. Boebert didn’t show up for her court date realted to this charge. She also didn’t show up for a court date after she manged to flip her verhicle over. If Boebert is such an advocate for law aand order, why didn’t she follow the law and show up for her court dates? Why did Boebert hassle police officers when they were dealing with underage drinkers? Hassling police offers while they are trying to do their jobs doesn’t sound like low and order kind of behvavior to me. Boebert is a simplistic fraud. It’s too bad she won the primary. Her opponent in the primary, the incumbent, is quite conservative but he isn’t a hypocritcal air head like Boebert.

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