A Republican representative has made the startling claim assault weapons can't be regulated in the US because they save the lives of chickens.
Colorado Republican representative Ken Buck dismissed a proposal to regulate AR-style rifles - the weapon of choice for mass shooters - as "small-minded" at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on Thursday (local time).
Buck dismissed the proposal because he was worried farmers couldn't control predators on their farms.
"Blaming the gun for what's happening in America is small-minded," he said.
"In rural Colorado, an AR-15 is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens.
"It is the gun of choice for killing a fox, it is a gun that you control predators on your ranch, on your farm, on your property," Bucked added.
The Huffington Post requested comment from Buck's office regarding how many chickens the life of one child is worth but they didn't respond.
It comes after a gunman on Wednesday killed five people, including himself, at an Oklahoma medical building after buying an assault-style rifle the same day had gone there to kill a doctor who he blamed for back pain he felt after surgery.
Just eight days before that, a gunman opened fire with a high-velocity AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle killing 19 children - aged 9 to 11 - and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
A white supremacist shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighbourhood in Buffalo, New York the week before the Texas school shooting.
Buck's comments have drawn widespread criticism.
"Oh - Why didn't y'all just say so? We have to protect the chickens from the raccoons. Cool cool," tweeted a Democrat Representative in California.
"So that's why our kids have to die in their classrooms. So we can protect the chickens. Makes total sense now."
Another Twitter user said Buck's behaviour was "unhinged".
"I live in a place with black bears, grizzly bears and raccoons, and nobody has to use a full-auto firearm to defend our chickens cos [sic] we pen them properly and store the food separately," the user wrote. "I am a hunter and I support gun use but this is UNHINGED behaviour. Nobody needs an AR-15."
Buck wasn't the only Republican to say the purchase of high-powered assault rifles shouldn't be restricted in the US because some people use them for pest control.
"If you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in, you know, whatever, the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you take it away from them," Republican Senator for Louisiana Bill Cassidy told Vice News.
"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."
Buck is a strong advocate against gun reform and even threatened US President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Beto O'Rouke with an actual gun.
"I have a message for Joe Biden and Beto O'Rouke. If you want to take everyone's AR-15s in America, why don't you swing by my office in Washington DC and start with this one," Buck said on Twitter in 2020.
Buck goes on to say "come and take it" as he picks up his gun off his office wall and holds it staring into the camera.
