Places like Chicago that have strong gun control laws in place are not seeing violent crime numbers dropping as a result, and that is a problem, Rep. Nancy Mace, who says she carries a gun for her own protection, told Newsmax Monday.
"It's interesting because I've heard numbers such as in New York, (where) they want to spend $140 million on gun control," the South Carolina Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Look at a place like Chicago where just a week ago last weekend there were 108 shootings, a place where Mayor Lori Lightfoot wanted to defund the police and is now begging for federal funding from the federal government and the Biden administration."
Her comments come as President Joe Biden is planning to meet Monday with local law enforcement leaders, elected officials, and an expert on community violence intervention at the White House while seeking support for his plans to curb gun violence.
Meanwhile, Mace said it's "time to set the record straight" after White House press secretary Jen Psaki's comments that it's Republicans, not Democrats, that want to defund the police.
"The problem with what the Democrats are selling right now is they're throwing everything at the wall because they're projecting," she said. "There are many Democrats that ran on defunding the police."
She also pointed out that Democrats who want to defund the police are "to the left of Bernie Sanders" because even the Vermont independent senator doesn't want to defund the police.
"They've got a real problem on their hands, particularly headed into the 2022 midterm election cycle."
Mace added that she has her concealed carry permit in her home state, as she has been carrying a weapon since vandals hit her house about a month ago, and she's "about halfway through" obtaining one for Washington, D.C. as well so she can carry a gun there too.
"Sometimes if you have to look over your shoulder, you don't know what's going to happen next, and I have to take these threats seriously, and I do," Mace said. "Unfortunately this is where we are in this country. And on August 15, South Carolina will have open carry."
Former President Donald Trump, while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference Sunday, addressed gun violence, saying it is reaching "epidemic" proportions in the nation's cities, and Mace said he is "precisely right."
"We've got to have some commonsense solutions," said Mace. "There are some commonsense solutions out there that that respect our constitutional second amendment rights so we have just got to work together to find them."
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