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.”
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.”
Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Here’s how.
