Graphic: DumpBachmann

Image: DumpBachmann

A spokesman for Michele Bachmann confirms what many suspected: The congresswoman was speaking in metaphor when she said “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax.” But while reading her lips leaves her meaning open to interpretation, reading her pro-gun legislation shows she’s a straight-shooter. 

There’s been widespread bemusement and head-shaking over the Republican lawmaker’s latest utterances on the airwaves. But many commentators have also pondered how the response — Bachmann’s own, for instance — would differ if a left-wing political figure had said something similar. And TPM’s Midwest foreign correspondent Eric Kleefeld wonders if it matters that Bachmann meant it metaphorically:

On the one hand, it seems clear that Bachmann was speaking figuratively. On the other hand, is it appropriate for a member of Congress to speak in any context about being armed for revolution?

Is it appropriate to consider Bachmann’s comments in the context of current bills to which she has lent her name?

HR 17: To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such right.

HR 197: To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.

And here’s some context for her co-sponsorship of those bills: A fellow conservative says Bachmann told him last fall about the firearm she’d like to tote, with her own conceal-carry permit:

I saw her in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago … and she said, “You know, I am so proud of that. But you know what I really like? I really like an AR15. But you just can’t carry that around.”

An AR15 is the civilian version — a semi-automatic metaphor, you might say — of the M16 and M4 assault rifles.

Here’s the video:

(h/t DumpBachmann)