Ralph Norman, a Republican, greets supporters in June 2017 at a campaign party in Rock Hill, S.C., after winning a special election for South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District. (Chuck Burton/Associated Press)

Yesterday, South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman was meeting with constituents in a diner in Rock Hill, SC.

To make a point that guns are dangerous only in the hands of criminals, a South Carolina congressman on Friday pulled out a loaded handgun during a meeting with constituents.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican, reportedly placed the .38-caliber gun on a table during the “coffee with constituents” meeting at a Rock Hill restaurant.

“I’m not going to be a Gabby Giffords,” Norman said, referring to the former Arizona congresswoman who was shot outside a grocery store during a 2011 constituent gathering.

The gun was bad enough, but saying that you weren’t going to be gunned down while unarmed, like Gabby Giffords, was just more than a lot of folks could handle.

When I think of @GabbyGiffords, I think of courage and public service, not intimidating constituents. You’re no Gabby, @RepRalphNorman. You pull out a gun when you are prepared and need to use it – not for a stunt. https://t.co/kkAHo2eSuE

— Captain Mark Kelly (@CaptMarkKelly) April 6, 2018

And, of course, Jeff Flake was ready to weigh in:

I sincerely hope you never have to experience what my friend @gabbygiffords experienced. But to suggest that she might have avoided being shot had she carried a weapon as she spoke to constituents that morning is inappropriate and inconsiderate. https://t.co/gnuSko0qcB

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) April 7, 2018

There were folks in the crowd from the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and they were not amused.

I don’t know anything about Norman but what I need to know, that is, he’s a Republican and believes in gun rights. If Mister Gabby Giffords wants to wet himself, along with Jeff Flake, that’s his prerogative but a driving a truck that happens to have the ability to move in three dimensions and being married to a woman who got shot doesn’t give him the moral on intellectual ability to sit in judgment on anyone else. This same applies for the people who think being in the vicinity of a school shooting gives them the moral authority to speak on behalf of people who were actually shot at.

We are beyond the point of taking into consideration the feelings of people who are trying to obliterate the values and institutions we cherish.