By attempting to carry a loaded semi-automatic handgun onto a plane in Iowa, GOP candidate Derrick Van Orden has again shown himself to be too reckless to serve Wisconsin’s 3rd District in the US House. 

In his brief statement to the press, Van Orden tells us the gun was purely in his bag by accident, while also trying to position himself as a firearm expert. Any sane gun owner knows the first rule of gun safety is to know where your guns are. “Expert” Van Orden could not even tell the TSA if the gun’s safety was on or not. This is not responsible gun ownership. This is a cavalier and dangerous attitude towards guns that get people hurt. 

Usually, Van Orden sticks to a carefully crafted campaign persona of taking pictures of his roadtrips and criticizing everything Democrats do without offering a single policy proposal to address the many problems he sees in our community. But, in unfiltered moments, he has written of sexually harassing female subordinates in the military and has accosted a teenage library assistant for displaying books with LGTBQ themes. 

Of course, his most heinous act so far was his participation in the January 6 Insurrection, where he was photographed standing on the wrong side of police barricades, watching as others stormed the capital. This man continually shows poor judgment and a disregard for the laws of this country, and he must not be allowed to bring his recklessness to the US House of Representatives.