Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy gave a creative answer when asked by a reporter on Thursday about possibly banning assault weapons in the wake of the Uvalde shooting.
Cassidy, 64, in his second term in the Senate, was asked by a reporter from Vice why someone would need an AR-15.
He responded: ‘Well, if you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you would take it away from them? I’m law abiding, I’ve never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right.’
Cassidy, according to anti-gun activist group Brady United, has received $2.8million in donations from the National Rifle Association, 10th most among active senators.
The question comes as the gun control debates rage anew after gunman Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, perpetrated the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade, killing 19 small children and two teachers before being shot dead by police.
President Joe Biden also plans to visit Uvalde on Sunday. He has called on lawmakers to take on America’s powerful gun-rights lobby and enact ‘common sense gun reforms.’
The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 elementary-age children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Ramos, notably, used an AR-15 to commit the mass killings.
Democratic Senators, as well as independent Bernie Sanders who caucuses with the Dems, have renewed their call for an assault weapons ban, while Republicans remain ardently opposed and focused on mental health and school secutiry.
A Texas law enforcement official said Thursday that the Uvalde shooter entered the elementary school building ‘unobstructed’ through a door that was apparently unlocked.
Victor Escalon, a regional director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the gunman did not initially encounter any law enforcement officers when he entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire.
Law enforcement authorities faced mounting questions and criticism Thursday over how much time elapsed before they stormed a Texas elementary school classroom and put a stop to the rampage.
Many other details about the timing of events and the police response remained murky.
The motive for the massacre remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history.
The gunman shot his own grandmother in the face minutes before attacking the school, and his text messages indicated that he was in an argument with the 66-year-old grandma about his phone bill.