North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) slammed his Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson (R) on Monday morning after the latter threatened to use his assault weapons against the government.
“This is dangerous and not who we are as patriotic North Carolinians,” Cooper tweeted with a clip of Robinson’s comments. “@MarkRobinsonNC’s assault weapon threats are bad enough, but an elected official sworn to uphold the constitution advocating violent overthrow of our [government] shames NC and puts our safety and our democracy at risk.”
The far-right lieutenant governor made the threat during a sermon at MidPoint Church on May 15, per the Charlotte Observer, as he was bragging about owning AR-15s.
“I got them AR-15s in case the government gets too big for its britches,” Robinson declared. “‘Cause I’m gonna fill the backside of those britches with some lead.”
The North Carolina Republican’s speech came a day after an alleged white supremacist fatally shot 10 people in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York using an AR-15 style rifle that the 18-year-old gunman allegedly bought legally.
Robinson also spoke at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston, Texas on Friday, just a few days after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas with an AR-style rifle that he had also purchased legally. Nineteen kids and two adults were killed in the attack.
The lieutenant governor is an NRA board member, according to his campaign website and the NRA’s website promoting Friday’s convention.
Robinson has a history of making bombastic and hateful remarks: He’s referred to LGBTQ+ people as “filth” and claimed immediately after the Orlando Pulse shooting in 2016 that “homosexuality is STILL an abominable sin.”
