Police Asked To Look Into Photo Of GOP Congressmen Holding AR-15 At Capitol

Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Ken Buck (R-CO) pose with an AR-15 rifle in Buck's Capitol Hill office.
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) tweeted a photo last week of him and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) posing with an American flag-patterned AR-15 rifle in a show of their Second Amendment bona fides.

Unfortunately for Buck, a Washington, D.C. attorney general’s office spokesperson told The Hill that it’s illegal to possess an AR-15 in the District. The spokesperson told the publication that the matter had been referred to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Buck told The Hill that Capitol Police approved of him bringing the rifle into his office, where he said he keeps it locked in a display case. He also said the firearm was “inoperable.”

“While safety protocols call for all guns to be treated as if they are loaded, this one isn’t,” he told the publication. “Further, a close inspection of the only public photo of the rifle will show that the bolt carrier assembly is not in the rifle; it is in fact in Colorado.”

“It is a beautiful, patriotic paper weight,” Buck added.

Earlier this year, the right-wing blogosphere cried foul after the conservative blog Legal Insurrection published evidence that police in the District had wanted to arrest David Gregory, the former host of NBC’s “Meet The Press,” for holding a gun magazine on-air in 2013. The attorney general’s office ultimately declined to prosecute Gregory.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. " ‘It is a beautiful, patriotic paper weight,’ Buck added."

    Owned by an ugly, traitorous boat anchor.

    EDIT: for the love of Pasta, Gowdy, who the hell dressed you this morning?

  2. Not the best cammo paint job

  3. Beat me to it! Never mind the gun, who the hell said that shit looked good? Stevie Wonder or Steve Harvey?

  4. Awfully big paper weight. Who takes their picture posing with a paper weight anyway?

  5. I agree, this is a very serious matter deserving of investigation by the police … the Fashion Police. Good grief!!!

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

73 more replies

Participants

Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for fgs Avatar for wildwilly1111 Avatar for mmurdoch Avatar for jonathang Avatar for dv01 Avatar for Diogenes67 Avatar for avattoir Avatar for dweb Avatar for teenlaqueefa Avatar for eduardoinohio Avatar for jinx_tpm Avatar for pshipkey Avatar for sherlock1 Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for longtimeobserver Avatar for chadingo Avatar for twowolves Avatar for benthere Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for emilianoelmexicano Avatar for glenn414 Avatar for demyankee

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: