SC’s Lindsey Graham says AR-15s are necessary in case of ‘breakdown of law and order’

South Carolina’s U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham spoke out Thursday against a possible future assault weapons ban during an event at a Greenville gun store, where he shot an AR-15.

The Seneca senator posted a video of himself shooting the gun on Instagram, with a caption that said guns like the AR-15 are necessary “if there is a breakdown of law and order.”

“(A)nd that can happen — we’ve seen it happen in our major cities,” Graham wrote in his Instagram caption. “Remember Hugo, where people were isolated for days? Remember Katrina? It’s not impossible to find yourself in the modern world without any police protection, because that’s just the way the times are in which we live in.”

Graham’s comments come as some members of Congress push for stronger gun regulation in multiple pieces of legislation, including a bill that would institute an assault weapons ban. That bill, introduced in early March, would ban the sale, transfer and manufacture and importation of assault weapons. President Joe Biden has called on the Senate to pass the ban.

The United States has instituted an assault weapons ban before, from 1994 to 2004. Graham said during that time, there was no evidence that crime rates decreased due to the ban.

However, while crime rates themselves did not fall during the ban, the number of mass shootings did, according to multiple studies.

Graham called on the Senate to bring up the assault weapons ban bill for debate.

“ If you really want to ban assault weapons, bring up the bill, and let’s have the debate,” Graham said. “The reason Senator Schumer won’t bring up the so-called Assault Weapons Ban, which is a misnomer, is because it won’t pass. It won’t get 50 votes, much less 60,” he said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York.

Currently, the Senate is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, serves as the tie-breaking vote.

The push for stronger gun regulations comes on the heels of a series of mass shootings over the last few weeks. On March 16, eight people were killed during a series of mass shootings at spas and massage parlors across Atlanta. A few days later, on March 22, ten were killed during a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Four people were killed, including a 9-year-old boy, during a shooting at a business complex Wednesday in Orange, California.