I Was Going To Ignore This As More Of The Same From The GOP

Sen. John Thune on AR-15s: "In my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints. And so I think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them." pic.twitter.com/BUJkLf3Apv

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2022

But some of the responses are just priceless:

Do they use stinger missiles on coyotes? https://t.co/eUJVlT5UJh

— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 7, 2022

Across the country "they use them to shoot" human beings in schools, grocery stores, hospitals, churches, synagogues, malls, bars, and workplaces.

If you think shooting "varmints" is more important than preventing mass shootings of children at elementary schools, you're wrong. https://t.co/fsuoC1ZFae

— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) June 7, 2022

In my state, we use low-yield tactical nuclear weapons for raccoons https://t.co/jHRzEfECqR

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 7, 2022

Sorry about all those dead kids, but we got varmints to vaporize out here in Real America. https://t.co/Of2yBcHHr6

— Liz Dye (@5DollarFeminist) June 7, 2022

These sorts of statements never make sense to me because everyone on both sides of the debate knows they aren't true. We use .22s to hunt "varmints." https://t.co/CuHjn0V9JR

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 7, 2022

Well, it's one step up from the "There' ain't no such thang as a 'assault rifle!' I's jus' a gun!"

This reminds me of the time my uncle stood in the back door of his house and aimed a .22 rifle at a bird in the tree on the far edge of his property.  Everything beyond that was wilderness and undeveloped land, except for the oil pumps working away down in the draw.  The land sloped off dramatically past his back yard (he was, IOW, at no risk of shooting anyone else in town.  They were on the raw edge of town, in Bartlesville, OK. I'm not sure there was any habitation between his yard and Kansas.)  The bird was easily 30 yards away, but without a scope on the rifle he drilled it through both eyes (in one and out the other), as clean a shot as you could ask.  We plucked it and cleaned it and ate it (I've already forgotten what it was).

If he'd had an AR-15, the feathers wouldn't have been left.

He also wasn't one to waste ammunition.