CO-06: Our Revolution candidate records himself getting pepper sprayed.

In a graphic new campaign video that’s prompting criticism, one of the two Democrats running in Colorado’s most competitive congressional race this year gets pepper sprayed to underline a proposal to halt school shootings.

Levi Tillemann, who is vying for a chance to unseat U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, in the 6th Congressional District wants to place pepper spray and other nonlethal weapons in schools to thwart active shooters and other potential threats.

It’s his alternative to calls from some conservatives to arm teachers with guns to protect their students.

“Wow, that’s intense,” Tillemann says in the video, as he douses his face in soapy water and sprays his intensely red eyes with a garden hose after being hit in the face with pepper spray.

The roughly 2-minute spot features an Aurora Public School board member, Kevin Cox, saying “common-sense” gun regulations aren’t enough to keep students safe as he endorses the proposal.

But the video is raising a lot of questions across social media and in Colorado political circles, as Tillemann faces a well-funded and establishment-backed Democratic primary opponent in Denver attorney Jason Crow. And at least one school-safety group that’s pro-gun control — along with the state’s largest teachers organization — aren’t fully embracing Tillemann’s idea.

Ken Toltz, who co-founded the organization Safe Campus Colorado, called the video “a mad-cap stunt” and said he couldn’t really take the idea seriously.


https://www.denverpost.com/2018/06/12/levi-tillemann-pepper-spray-video/