Butler Co. lawmaker mocks teen gun control activists as Doritos-eating video game players

COLUMBUS - An Ohio lawmaker accused outspoken victims of the Parkland school shooting of being misinformed teens who would rather be "eating Doritos and playing video games."

“A month ago, we weren’t really having this conversation, and all of a sudden a 15-year-old on television who would just as soon be eating Doritos and playing video games wants to tell me that my constitution needs to be changed. Really?" Butler County Rep. Candice Keller said at a pro-gun rally in Columbus earlier this month.

Keller, a proud Second Amendment advocate and proponent of Ohio's "stand your ground" proposal, told those assembled at the Ohio Statehouse that she would not listen to the teenagers. “I was born with the right to carry.”

After a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, surviving students took to social media and television with their message of gun control. Florida lawmakers passed its first gun control law in more than 20 years as a result of that pressure.

But not everyone agrees with their message. Keller's speech was made March 10, before Ohio teenagers walked out of school in protest of shootings and visited with lawmakers in Columbus. Keller was not on the list of legislators who met with students even though other pro-gun Republicans did. Keller said she spoke with some in the halls.

Last weekend, thousands filled Cincinnati's streets to protest gun violence as part of the March For Our Lives.

Ohio's GOP-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov. John Kasich have passed multiple bills to expand access to firearms and concealed handguns in recent years. The governor recently released several recommendations on gun control, such as banning bump stocks used to make a semi-automatic weapon operate like an automatic one, but the ideas have seen little action so far.

At the rally, Keller spoke about how having a firearm makes her feel safer.

"Nothing empowers women more than carrying. So firearms protect me against offenders. My husband is not always with me," she said.

The Middletown Republican also took aim at Democrats' concerns that there is a war on women in Ohio – mostly because of GOP's restrictions on abortion access.

“I don’t think there is a war on women in this country. That’s just me. I think there’s a war on men in this country," Keller said.

Scroll to the 49:50 mark to hear Keller's remarks: