Source: Joe Raedle / Getty
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says he owns an assault rifle for home defense, he revealed on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, while providing a detailed scenario of when he may use it against so-called gangs.
“I own an AR-15,” Graham said. “If there’s a natural disaster in South Carolina where the cops can’t protect my neighborhood, my house will be the last one that the gang will come to because I can defend myself. You don’t have to have an AR-15, but if you have one lawfully, I think you should be allowed to keep it.”
The Senator’s comments come after the tragic shootings in Atlanta, Georgia and Boulder, Colorado in which both shooters used an AR-15 in the separate incidents. A disturbing trend with a majority of mass shooting in the US.
When pressed by Wallace about the issue of gun control, Graham challenged Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to bring an assault weapons ban to the Senate floor.
“At the end of the day, if you think an assault weapons ban is what the country needs, bring it to the floor of the United States Senate and vote on it. I welcome that debate,” Graham later added.
Supporters of an assault weapons ban took to social media to express their frustration with Graham’s lack of compassion or awareness, including Parkland shooting survivor Cameron Kasky, who said that the senator was being fed a narrative from gun manufacturers about “apocalyptic” scenarios.
“The suggestion that a twerp like Lindsey Graham can be some sort of tough guy fending away apocalyptic invaders is just the narrative that they sell,” Kasky said on MSNBC’s “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, who ran against Graham in November, said the Senator was “embarrassing” both himself and South Carolina for his need to have an AR-15 for home protection.
“Lindsey Graham lives in Central, South Carolina. You have a population probably less than the block that you live on. The only gang that Lindsey Graham’s gonna see in Central is probably at the Walmart standing in the one line that is open,” Harrison said.
“It’s ridiculous, Lindsey is ridiculous. And he just needs to be quiet and his folks just need to tell him to stay off-camera because he’s embarrassing himself and the state of South Carolina,” he continued.
Graham and his Republican colleagues toured part of the Rio Grande river along with the Texas Department of Public Safety last week. All part of a Senate delegation visit the Texas-Mexican border.
