In the wake of near-constant mass killings and school shootings, many Americans are supporting gun control reform. Groups like Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety have campaigned tirelessly to close loopholes in current gun laws and enact more common sense gun safety regulations. Even teens are speaking up and making their voices heard, as we’ve seen from the remarkable students of Stoneman Douglas High School.

These earnest pleas for gun control and safety have been met with scorn and derision by the NRA, Fox News, and Republicans.

Republicans continue to cruelly mock gun violence survivors, and this case seems particularly egregious and vicious. Today in the New Hampshire State House, several Republican state reps sported pearl necklaces during a meeting at the House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety.

The pearls were intended to mock the mother of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization of women devoted to gun control reform. Because ladies are always clutching their pearls, right fellas?

The story came to national attention when Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts tweeted the following:

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

Of the 13 person ERPO hearing committee, 10 of the lawmakers are men; half of them are wearing pearls to mock @MomsDemand volunteers. Meanwhile, their constituents are in tears as they testify about gun suicides and domestic gun violence in their families. #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/eVIS73yfoR — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 5, 2019

The hearing was regarding the proposal of a “red flag law,” wherein judges can order guns to be confiscated from individuals who appear to be a danger to themselves or others. Watts said of the pearls, “They made light of this very important law that has been passed in nine states in the past year, and signed by Republican and Democratic governors alike. They showed they were not coming to this hearing with an open mind, and they were making light of survivors who were testifying on the suicide of a child, or women who were survivors of domestic abuse.”

Meanwhile, conservatives are claiming that the pearls were worn and distributed by the Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire, a conservative group of female second amendment supporters who oppose gun control laws. Kimberly Morin, the president of the WDLNH said that they wear the pearls “in defense of women’s right and the Women’s Defense League since then, because we are moms just like they are only on different sides.”

However, many on Twitter saw the pearls as a callous attempt to mock and intimidate Moms Demand Action and gun control supporters.

Moms are not “clutching their pearls” over gun violence. They are BURYING their children over gun violence. These are preventable deaths save for your selfishness & greed, #NHPolitics. You should be ashamed. #MomsDemand https://t.co/JtCsimveoQ — ElizabethSchatzDoyle (@elizabethdoyle) March 5, 2019

During the @afspnational Out of the Darkness walks people wear beads to represent their loss. Parents who have lost a child wear white beads. My son took his life with with a gun. I wear white beads. This is mercilessly cruel. @MomsDemand https://t.co/431upNC6Z5 — Patti M Piatt (@PiattPatti) March 5, 2019

Moms who want to keep their kids safe from gun violence don’t deserve this. https://t.co/oQnQatlx4x — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) March 5, 2019

Bitches, we gave birth to you. Literally made you. You think a strand of pearls will intimidate a bunch of moms who pushed you through their vaginas? You clutch your pearls when you’re constipated. https://t.co/LnWehXBWPz — Allana (@AllanaHarkin) March 5, 2019

The New Hampshire Republican Party has become the party of flair. Once they are voted out of office they can get a good job at Chotchkie’s. Mocking survivors of gun violence is never a good look but these clowns made it worse.#NHPolitics#GunSafety pic.twitter.com/oj1OpKPdyH — Jeremy Anderson (@cynicaljeremy) March 5, 2019

Does this anger you? Are you a resident of New Hampshire, or any other state where elected officials reject gun control? Then let’s do something about it in 2020.

Pictured below: Rep. David Welch

Rep. Scott Wallace

Rep. Daryl Abbas All up for re-election in 2020. #NHPolitics #youthvote https://t.co/pjRZleE428 — NextGen America (@NextGenAmerica) March 5, 2019

(via New Hampshire Union Leader, image: John Moore/Getty Images)

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