During a conversation with school kids from Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, an Indiana lawmaker allegedly tried to intimidate the youngsters visiting the Statehouse. The school kids were on a visit to demand legislative action to reduce gun violence.
However, a student caught the moment in a 10-minute video and shared it on X, formerly Twitter. Muncie High School students affiliated with Students Demand Action, a national organization committed to ending gun violence, encountered Lucas in an elevator at the Statehouse.
The representative struck up a conversation with the students, which resulted in a heated discussion about gun laws and school shootings. According to the video, the Indiana lawmaker, Jim Lucas (R Seymour), engaged in a heated debate with the students for a few minutes.
Afterward, he abruptly told them he was carrying a gun. Also, the video shows Lucas telling the students to go to a gun range and to learn to shoot. He also said to them that people have to protect themselves and referenced failures of law enforcement to prevent mass casualties during school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas.
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Lucas said that people can’t be “truly free” unless they can defend themselves when discussing places where firearms are banned. A student off-camera had asked Lucas if he meant carrying a gun. Lucas responded, “I’m carrying one right now.”
He opened his suit jacket, exposing a holstered handgun. Although it was unclear what kind of gun Lucas was carrying, the students expressed displeasure. “Nothing about someone carrying a gun makes me feel safe,” one of the students replied.
Makynna Fivecoats, one of the students, said the discussion turned “very aggressive, very quickly.” “When one of our other members asked why he felt the need to carry a handgun, he showed us his gun.”
Furthermore, she added, “At that point, the situation just took a turn. And it was no longer a civil conversation. It was more of a power dynamic. And he was telling us, he was almost talking at us, we just had to sit there and be quiet.”
However, Lucas didn’t describe his actions in a public Facebook post. He said the conversation “was respectful, but it was facts, reason, and logic vs. plain emotion.” He wrote, “People are also being indoctrinated to depend on the government for their safety.”
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“The government has clearly shown that it doesn’t have the duty to protect us,” the Indiana lawmaker added. Fivecoats mentioned in an interview that she and the other group members did not feel heard in the conversation.
She added that adults and lawmakers often overlook them because of their age. “The people close to me are dying by guns every day,” she said. “It’s no longer just an adult conversation. But a school conversation. A friend’s conversation. And now it’s a school conversation.”
She also added, “It’s a conversation for everyone, and by him showing me his firearm, it was no longer a conversation but a threat.” Fivecoats noted she told the lawmaker that having his firearm does not make them feel safe. However, he reportedly argued that he was talking about facts.
“That’s what this is about. This is about feelings,” Fivecoats responded. However, Lucas disagreed, saying, “People who want to kill you don’t care about your feelings.” One of the students asked Lucas if he had lost anyone to gun violence.
The Indiana lawmaker said he had defended his family twice with a firearm but did not elaborate. Lucas eventually began to walk away and asked, “Does anybody else have any rational concerns they’d like to address?”
However, he reportedly walked away when the conversation began again. In an interview, Lucas maintained his stance and defended how he handled the situation. He said, “People who want to have adult conversations need to be able to handle adult situations.”
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