'You think we don't have hearts?' Louie Gohmert scolded Democrats in an emotional outburst during a gun control debate

• Rep. Louie Gohmert tore into Democrats, accusing them of implying Republicans "don't have hearts."
• "How dare you!" he said Thursday after his party was criticized for its stance opposing gun control.

A seething Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) berated his colleagues from across the aisle on Thursday for criticizing Republican representatives in the debate over gun control.

"I don't think that it's very effective for the children to have people on the other side of the aisle come in and accuse Republicans of being complicit in murder and that we put our right to kill over others' right to live," Gohmert said during a Judiciary House Committee hearing via video conference.

"To infer by rhetorical supposed questions: 'Who are you here for? We must be here for the gunmen,' is an outrage," he continued. "How dare you! You think we don't have hearts?"

Before Gohmert's outburst, Democrat lawmakers, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), had chastised Republicans for continuing to oppose gun control measures despite repeated mass shootings at schools.

The committee was discussing a bill that seeks to raise the purchase age of semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, restrict high-capacity ammunition magazines, and require existing bump stocks to be registered — part of a multi-bill effort to address a devastating recent spate of gun violence.

Gohmert pointed to rising violence rates in Democrat-led cities as a sign that policies in those areas are causing a spike in crime rather than alleviating crime — a common talking point from right-wing politicians.

Murder rates in large cities have been on the rise, but experts previously told Insider's Haven Orecchio-Egresitz in July that the "crime is up" narrative isn't wholly correct. While shootings and homicide rates have jumped, they're only a small portion of violent crime and an even smaller part of total crime, they said.

"We care about people. We care about their lives, and lives have been so trivialized," Gohmert said. "We care deeply. How dare you, how dare you, you arrogant people! Attributing murder to those of us that want to do things to stop it. Because we've seen what your ideas do, they create more murder."

Gohmert has historically voted against gun restrictions since he was elected into Congress in 2005, according to records from the non-profit organization VoteSmart. Most recently, in 2021, he voted against two bills that would have allowed for enhanced background checks. One exception to his pro-gun stance was in 2017, when he and 15 other Republicans voted against a bill that would have allowed qualified individuals to carry a concealed firearm across state lines.