WASHINGTON — Repub­li­can Lau­ren Boe­bert, the firearms-tot­ing con­gress­woman-elect who owns a gun-themed restau­rant in Rifle, has already asked Capi­tol Police about car­ry­ing her weapon on Capi­tol grounds, her office has acknowl­edged. If she does so, she appar­ent­ly won’t be alone.

The prac­tice is allowed for law­mak­ers, with some lim­i­ta­tions, under decades-old con­gres­sion­al reg­u­la­tions. The pub­lic is barred from car­ry­ing weapons in the Capi­tol, its grounds and office buildings.

Boe­bert, 33, was elect­ed this month from a con­ser­v­a­tive west­ern Col­orado dis­trict after gain­ing notice as a brash pro-gun activist who straps a Glock pis­tol to her hip. In an upset last June, she defeat­ed five-term Rep. Scott Tip­ton for the GOP nom­i­na­tion, in part by claim­ing he wasn’t an ardent enough backer of Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.

Boe­bert asked Capi­tol Police offi­cials about car­ry­ing her weapon when she and oth­er House fresh­men tak­ing office in Jan­u­ary were in town recent­ly for ori­en­ta­tion pro­grams, accord­ing to two con­gres­sion­al offi­cials. Both peo­ple — a Demo­c­rat and a Repub­li­can — spoke on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty to describe her request.

Aides to Boe­bert, who Trump endorsed as “a fight­er” who will “nev­er bow down to the estab­lish­ment in Con­gress,” did not make her avail­able for an interview.

“This was a pri­vate dis­cus­sion and inquiry about what the rules are, and as a result the Con­gress­woman-Elect won’t be going on the record,” Boe­bert aide Lau­ra Carno said in an email last week.

The inquiries by Boe­bert, who runs Shoot­ers Grill, come as guns remain a pas­sion­ate issue for both par­ties, fueled by images of demon­stra­tions by armed Trump sup­port­ers, con­ser­v­a­tive push­es to ease state gun restric­tions and recent years’ mass shootings.

Even so, prospects for sig­nif­i­cant­ly chang­ing fed­er­al gun laws seem scant as a new, nar­row­ly divid­ed Con­gress takes office in Jan­u­ary along­side Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden.

Capi­tol Police spokes­woman Eva Malec­ki did not respond to a reporter’s ques­tions about the department’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions with Boe­bert and the num­ber of law­mak­ers who car­ry firearms.

The agency’s offi­cials did not answer direct­ly when Democ­rats on the House Com­mit­tee on Admin­is­tra­tion asked in 2018 how many law­mak­ers car­ry firearms in the Capi­tol. The offi­cials said in a writ­ten response that they’ve “been made aware” of inquiries about car­ry­ing weapons.

“There is no stand­ing require­ment” that law­mak­ers noti­fy them when they car­ry a firearm in the Capi­tol, the offi­cials wrote. Reg­u­la­tions require safe stor­age of weapons, but “that respon­si­bil­i­ty resides with the Mem­ber,” they said.

A 1967 reg­u­la­tion says no fed­er­al or Dis­trict of Colum­bia laws restrict­ing firearms “shall pro­hib­it any Mem­ber of Con­gress from main­tain­ing firearms with­in the con­fines of his office” or “from trans­port­ing with­in Capi­tol grounds firearms unloaded and secure­ly wrapped.”

Law­mak­ers may not bring weapons into the House cham­ber and oth­er near­by areas, the reg­u­la­tions say, accord­ing to a let­ter Rep. Jared Huff­man, D‑Calif., wrote in 2018. Aides can car­ry law­mak­ers’ weapons for them on the Capi­tol com­plex, he wrote.

In his let­ter to House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irv­ing, Huff­man sum­ma­rized the reg­u­la­tions after being briefed on them by Irv­ing. An oppo­nent of let­ting mem­bers of Con­gress car­ry guns on Capi­tol grounds, Huff­man aban­doned a 2018 effort to halt the prac­tice due to col­leagues’ strong oppo­si­tion and said in an inter­view that he wouldn’t try again this year due to con­tin­ued resistance.

Huff­man said the loop­hole for law­mak­ers, adopt­ed after a sum­mer of racial unrest in Amer­i­can cities, is out­dat­ed and risky.

He said mem­bers and their staffs car­ry firearms around the Capi­tol “all the time,” though he men­tioned no names. He said law­mak­ers keep guns in their pub­licly acces­si­ble offices, though build­ing entry has been lim­it­ed due to COVID-19.

“Mem­bers could have a loaded AK47 sit­ting on their desk and no one would ever do any­thing about it,” Huff­man said.

He also said with law­mak­ers exempt­ed from pass­ing through screen­ing devices through­out the Capi­tol cam­pus, “no one checks” to make sure they’re not bring­ing guns onto the House floor.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R‑Ky., chair­man of the House Sec­ond Amend­ment Cau­cus, jus­ti­fied let­ting law­mak­ers car­ry weapons. He cit­ed the 2017 shoot­ing spree when a gun­man wound­ed Rep. Steve Scalise, R‑La., and four oth­er peo­ple as they prac­ticed base­ball in near­by Alexan­dria, Va.

“As soon as you leave the Capi­tol prop­er­ty, you are a tar­get,” Massie said.

Also sup­port­ing Boe­bert is Rep.-elect Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene, R‑Ga., like Boe­bert a hard-right con­ser­v­a­tive with a pen­chant for attract­ing pub­lic­i­ty. Greene, like Boe­bert, has expressed sup­port for QAnon con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries, though both have tried dis­tanc­ing them­selves from the unfound­ed beliefs.

“Not only do I sup­port mem­bers of Con­gress car­ry­ing a firearm, I believe every Amer­i­can has that right.” Greene said in a state­ment. “I will work every day to end ALL gun free zones.”

Police peri­od­i­cal­ly arrest peo­ple caught try­ing to bring firearms into the Capi­tol and its buildings.

In 1999, Corey Lewandows­ki — then a con­gres­sion­al aide and lat­er a man­ag­er of Trump’s 2016 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign — was arrest­ed when what court records called a loaded pis­tol was found in a laun­dry bag he was bring­ing into a House office build­ing. Mis­de­meanor charges were dismissed.

The Capi­tol Police pro­tect the com­plex with more than 2,300 offi­cers and civil­ian employ­ees, accord­ing to its web­site. Its offi­cers rou­tine­ly arrest peo­ple caught try­ing to car­ry weapons at the Capitol.

The reg­u­la­tions let­ting law­mak­ers car­ry guns was writ­ten by the Capi­tol Police Board, which con­sists of four of Con­gress’ top law enforce­ment and admin­is­tra­tive officials.