UPDATE: The Denver Post‘s Kurtis Lee nails Rep. Rhonda Fields spouting the same lie as DeGette:

Colorado Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, a prominent figure in the charge to pass stricter firearms laws, said Friday that she “misspoke” in a national radio interview when referencing an assault rifle as the weapon that killed her son.

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Denver Congresswoman Diana DeGette and her staff have proven to be among the least informed Congressional offices in the Capitol when it comes to guns. After Congresswoman DeGette tried to claim gun magazines were expendable, one-time-use-only items in defense of her proposed federal magazine ban, her staff tried to excuse her ignorance with another false statement about guns.

Yesterday, unable to withstand the national heat and mockery coming from all quarters, DeGette penned a defensive, whiny Denver Post op-ed, claiming victim status where she proceeded to make a third embarrassing false claim about guns.

While she refuses to name Peak or Revealing Politics, you can tell we’re getting under her skin. From the Op-Ed:

Over the past few days, this paper and several conservative blogs have seized upon remarks I made at a Denver Post gun forum regarding my legislation to ban high-capacity magazines.

…In the age of social media, the playbook has taken on a new vicious and viral quality, as half-truths and distorted facts can be spread to thousands of their allies over the Internet for mobilization purposes. We have seen this time after time in Colorado and across the nation.

Earlier this year, here in Colorado, Aurora’s state Rep. Rhonda Fields was personally and viciously maligned as she pursued meaningful gun violence prevention legislation in the statehouse — including a high-capacity magazine ban. Despite her long reputation as a tireless advocate for gun safety, and as the parent of a child gunned down by an assault weapon, the attacks were ugly and personal, and not only distracted from the critical debates occurring in the state Capitol, they ultimately led to physical threats against Fields. [Peak emphasis]

Congresswoman DeGette is claiming that the tragic shooting of Rep. Fields’ son was done with an “assault weapon.” That is simply not true. The killers, who rightfully sit on Death Row, committed their crime with two handguns.

As The Denver Post reported from the trial:

On June 20, 2005, Carter and Owens waited on an Aurora street until they saw the engaged couple leave for the evening.

As Marshall-Fields’ car passed, Tomsic said, Carter pulled alongside it, then Owens hung out the window and fired several shots from a .45-caliber gun into the car.

As the car was stopping, she said, Owens got out and fired several more shots with a 9mm handgun “to make sure he killed two people.”

For the sake of DeGette’s staff, a .45 and a 9mm are both handguns. Even Senate President John Morse’s extreme gun manufacturer liability bill defined handguns as specifically NOT “assault weapons.”

It’s become a common trend for gun control supporters to use the most scary-sounding language possible — like when DeGette’s spokeswoman Juliet Johnson referred to DeGette’s crusade to ban “assault magazines” — but it’s complete BS.

President Obama did this recently when he falsely claimed that a “fully automatic weapon” was used in the Newtown shooting — which CNN’s Jake Tapper called him out for. Does anyone pushing gun control know anything about guns other than that they don’t like them?

When the lead sponsor on federal gun control legislation doesn’t even know the basics about guns we have really, truly descended into an idiocracy