A video taken by a high school student shows an Indiana lawmaker flashing a gun to students who were visiting the statehouse to talk to legislators about gun control.
A student from Burris Laboratory School in Muncie told The Associated Press she and four other students were at the state Capitol on Tuesday to participate in a day of advocacy with Students Demand Action, an arm of Everytown for Gun Safety.
Alana Trissel, 17, said state Rep. Jim Lucas asked the students what brought them to the Capitol and began to defend gun rights.
Lucas, a Republican from Seymour, and the group then conversed outside the elevator and one of the students filmed the interaction, which was first reported by the Statehouse File , a student journalism news site at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana.
In the video, Lucas told the students people have to protect themselves and referenced failures of law enforcement to prevent mass casualties during school shootings in Parkland, Florida , and Uvalde, Texas ,