US Lawmaker Shows Off AR-15, Challenges Biden to ‘Come and Take It’

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) in a file photograph. Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) on Friday challenged former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, to take his AR-15-style rifle from his office in Washington.

“I have just one message for Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke, if you want to take everyone’s AR-15s, why don’t you swing by my office in Washington, D.C. and start with this one?” Buck wrote on Twitter, referring to the former representative from Texas who said that, if he were elected president, he would take away people’s AR-15s.

Later, Buck wrote: “Come and take it.” One post included a video of Buck taking the multicolored gun off the wall of his office and holding it before he smiled.

The video was posted just days after O’Rourke appeared on stage with Biden in Texas. After O’Rourke, a former 2020 Democratic candidate, pledged his support to the former vice president, Biden said he would make him his gun czar.

“I want to make something clear: I’m going to guarantee you this is not the last you’ve seen of him,” Biden said in reference to O’Rourke. “You’re going to take care of the gun problem with me. You’re going to be the one who leads this effort,” he added.

In September 2019, the former congressman made headlines after he promised that he would take away all legally obtained assault rifles, including AR-15s, if he was elected president.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke remarked. ”We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore,” he said at the time.

O‘Rourke made the comment days after a gunman shot and killed dozens of people inside an El Paso, Texas, Walmart. It prompted Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain to write that “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis,” referring to O’Rourke’s given name.

Cain’s post was removed by Twitter, which confirmed to CNN that it violated the firm’s rules on violence.

While the District of Columbia has among the strictest gun laws in the United States, members of Congress and their employees can take guns with them on the Capitol Grounds if the guns are unloaded and secured.

Biden’s office hasn’t responded to a request for comment about the newly posted video.