Rep. Ken Buck: We Can't Regulate Assault Weapons Because Raccoons Eat Chickens
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Please, think of the children chickens.
At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence Thursday, Republican Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.) dismissed a proposal to regulate AR-style rifles, the weapon of choice for mass shooters, as “small-minded.”
Why? Because without them, Buck claimed, ranchers would be completely defenseless against varmint.
“Blaming the gun for what’s happening in America is small-minded,” he said.
“In rural Colorado, an AR-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens,” Buck added. “It is the gun of choice for killing a fox, it is a gun that you control predators on your ranch, on your farm, on your property.”
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) suggests restricting access to AR-style rifles would lead to deaths in Colorado. Chicken deaths. #copoliticspic.twitter.com/9GUISk8k7r
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) June 3, 2022
If it sounds preposterous, that’s because it is. As this NRA story detailing a prolific raccoon hunter makes abundantly clear, a small caliber, lever-action rifle is more than capable of keeping the animal at bay.
Buck’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment regarding how many chickens the life of one child is worth.
Astute readers will recall that Buck has an AR-15 mounted on the wall of his Capitol Hill office. In 2020, he used it threaten Joe Biden, then a presidential candidate, and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke. Neither of them are raccoons.
Buck’s claim drew ridicule from his colleagues across the aisle.
“Oh — Why didn’t y’all just say so? We have to protect the chickens from the raccoons. Cool cool,” tweeted Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). “So that’s why our kids have to die in their classrooms. So we can protect the chickens. Makes total sense now.”
Oh—Why didn’t y’all just say so? We have to protect the chickens from the raccoons. Cool cool. So that’s why our kids have to die in their classrooms. So we can protect the chickens. Makes total sense now. https://t.co/ir21XalETg
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) June 3, 2022
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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