A moment of silence for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who died after being shot in the neck Wednesday at an event in Utah, devolved into frustrated shouts on the House floor Wednesday.
Moments of silence, while not unusual in the House for tragedies, are typically undisturbed.
But this time, as it ended, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said from the floor that “silent prayer gets silent results” and asked about a spoken prayer. This spurred House Democrats to begin yelling, with Republicans responding with shouts of their own.
The calls from Democrats on the floor were comments critical of the Republican Party’s opposition to laws aimed at reducing gun violence.
“Pass some gun laws,” one Democrat yelled.
Kirk, 31, was shot at an event at at Utah Valley University in the city of Orem.
Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking before the moment of silence, decried the shooting.
“Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are,” the Louisiana Republican said, adding, “We need every political leader to decry the violence and to do it loudly.”
House Republicans late Wednesday introduced a resolution condemning the shooting and calling it an assassination.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, meanwhile, said he was “horrified” to hear of Kirk’s death.
“I’m deeply disturbed about the threat of violence that has entered our political life, and I pray that we will remember that every person, no matter how vehement our disagreement with them, is a human being and a fellow American deserving of respect and protection,” the South Dakota Republican said.
Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who was at the event and witnessed the shooting, spoke to Fox News just afterward, saying it occurred in a city that was “one of the safest places on the planet.”
“We just don’t have these types of things,” he said. “We don’t have murders, let alone shootings, let alone something of this magnitude.”
The shooting occurred just months after former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband were shot to death at their home.
“If someone can be shot for views you detest, then they can be shot for views you hold dear,” Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, tweeted Wednesday after Kirk’s shooting. “That’s why a free nation cannot tolerate political violence.”
Jackie Wang contributed to this report.
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