Rep. Ken Buck: We Can't Regulate Assault Weapons Because Raccoons Eat Chickens

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.”