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New Hampshire lawmakers defend wearing pearl necklaces at gun hearing

Did NH lawmakers wear pearl necklaces to mock activists testifying about gun violence? William Cummings Save

A few Republican members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives sparked an uproar after images circulated on social media showed them sporting pearls to a hearing on gun control.

But the group that gave out the necklaces deny they were meant to mock concerns about gun violence.

Volunteers from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who came to the statehouse in Concord on Tuesday to testify about gun violence, felt the lawmakers wore the necklaces to imply they were "clutching their pearls," a metaphor – often aimed at women – for someone who is demonstrating feigned or exaggerated shock or outrage. The angry responses to the pearls included statements from two Democratic presidential candidates: Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Sen. Kamala Harris of California.

Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts tweeted the men wore "pearls to mock @MomsDemand volunteers."

But the state Republican party called the uproar "fake news" and said the pearls were given to the state legislators by the Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire as a sign of support for gun rights. The Women's Defense League opposes gun control measures and encourages women to "empower themselves by safely and accurately learning how to use firearms."

"It's absolutely fake news to claim that the representatives were mocking anyone in the chamber," said Joe Sweeney, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Republican Party.

Sweeney told USA TODAY that the Women's Defense League has been giving out the pearls since 2016 to "show solidarity with their groups' position on Second Amendment issues."

Kimberly Morin‏, president of the New Hampshire Women's Defense League, tweeted, "The PEARLS are in support of the Women's Defense League. Women who ACTUALLY PROMOTE GUN SAFETY and WOMEN'S RIGHTS."

The lawmakers wore the pearls during a meeting of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee , which was discussing proposed "red flag" legislation . The gun control measure would allow a judge to restrict access to firearms by people who are considered a threat to themselves or the public. Family members and law enforcement would be able to petition the court to issue such an order.

More: Supreme Court's conservatives appear poised to expand Second Amendment gun rights

A photo from NHJournal, a conservative-leaning news site, showed seven of the eight Republicans on the committee, all but one of them male, sporting the pearl necklaces. State Rep. Scott Wallace also wore a pin resembling a semi-automatic rifle.

"We were given the pearls by the Women’s Defense League," Wallace told NHJournal. "They ask us to wear them as a sign of support. And not just the guys. Women legislators were wearing them, too."

"They gave them out to a whole bunch of us," state Rep. David Welch, one of the men in the photo, told the Union Leader. Welch told the paper he agreed to wear the necklace to symbolize his opposition to the bill.

"These men are supporting women and supporting women who support actual women's rights. They are the farthest thing from sexist and there was a women (sic) lawmaker wearing them, too," Morin told CNN Wednesday.

But Watts' opinion that the pearl necklaces were meant to mock gun control advocates went unchanged.

"These lawmakers decided to wear symbols that essentially mocked the process," she told the Union Leader. "They showed they were not coming to this hearing with an open mind, and they were making light of survivors who were testifying on the suicide of a child, or women who were survivors of domestic abuse."

She told The Washington Post that "when you are a male lawmaker and you come to a hearing wearing a pearl necklace and a semiautomatic rifle pin, you sort of lose control of the narrative."

The website for the Women's Defense League organization decried the proposed red flag bill as "the most destructive piece of legislation to ever be introduced to the legislature in modern history."

The group claims the bill would allow the "rights of law-abiding gun owners" to "be stripped away by an angry ex-husband or wife; a psychopathic ex-roommate; a pissed off Mother-in-Law; an abusive boyfriend" and warned, "the police can file a petition on ANYONE at ANY TIME."

Advocates of red flag laws say they can help prevent acts of violence , including mass shootings and suicides.

State Rep. John Burt told Talking Points Memo that Watts and other anti-gun activists "need to get over themselves."

"This had nothing to do with them. It is to support the Women’s Defense League and the good they do to train women to protect their children," Burt said.