Since a congressman and a loaded gun across the table from her put Lori Freeman at the center of a political firestorm, she's heard plenty. But what she read from U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman himself about her group has Freeman bothered most.
"We are not a radical group," Freeman said of a local chapter of a national organization called Moms Demand Action.
"We are a non-partisan group," Freeman said. "We support the Second Amendment. Our group includes gun owners. We don't want to take people's guns away."
Her group, she said, has a different aim.
"We want common sense gun legislation that will keep us safer," Freeman said.
On April 6, Norman placed a loaded gun[1] on the table where he and constituents were meeting at Rock Hill diner. Since then, a wide range of reaction, including both criticism and support[2], has been published online, over both Norman's displaying the weapon and his stance on gun control measures.
Norman, a Rock Hill Republican, took to social media the day after the incident, offering an explanation what he said said happened. At an event Monday afternoon at an Indian Land pharmacy, Norman reiterated what he'd posted. He said reaction to the gun incident was "political."
"I did not break the law," he said. "I did not wave it. I did not brandish it. I didn't point it at anyone."
He didn't have any regrets involving the incident with the gun.
"I did it to prove a point," Norman said. "Yes, it was the right thing to do."
In the Facebook post on his Rep. Ralph Norman page, Norman called the group
