March 29, 2023 11:34 AM UTC

Ken Buck's Theater of the AR-bsurd on CNN

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• by: Colorado Pols

Yesterday afternoon, senior White House correspondent for CNN Phil Mattingly recorded a segment with Colorado’s Rep. Ken Buck on the subject of gun control laws generally and the AR-15 rifle in particular–the latter being the overwhelming weapon of choice in American mass shootings, and also a personal trophy hanging on the wall of Rep. Buck’s congressional office, one that Buck recently dared Democrats to “come and take.”

The conversation began with a discussion of “red flag” laws like Colorado’s, which Buck asserts would not have prevented the most recent school shooting in Nashville, since it “hasn’t stopped gun violence in Colorado and it won’t.”

Phil Mattingly [00:01:51] But I think this kind of gets to my question because I wasn’t asking about the guns specifically here. This was an individual that had known mental health issues, was seeing a doctor for those mental health issues and yet was able to get access to guns to use. And you’re saying red flag laws in Colorado- You’ve opposed red flag laws generally, particularly on a national scale in the past- wouldn’t work. So those things don’t necessarily net out. What’s your answer here, then?

Buck: Well, my answer is I don’t know what the law is in Tennessee. If you’re telling me there’s no red flag law.

Mattingly: There’s not.

Buck: I don’t oppose red flag laws that give defendants, in this case, the gun owner, the right to appear in court and defend themselves. The problem, the gun, the red flag law in Colorado is there is no due process… [Pols emphasis]

As anyone who knows how Colorado’s “red flag” law works already knows, Buck is straight-up lying when he claims there is “no due process.” A temporary extreme risk protection order (ERPO) requires a hearing and a judge’s order, and the one-year ERPO comes only after a second hearing. It’s not the first time we’ve marveled at this former prosecutor’s seeming total ignorance about laws he is professionally charged with understanding.

From there, the interview turned to Ken Buck’s beloved piece of wall art–since the bolt of the weapon allegedly isn’t present, as the D.C. District Attorney’s office learned to their chagrin, it’s not a fully illegal assault rifle. But with AR-15s just like Buck’s continuing to cause disproportionate harm in mass shootings happening almost daily, it’s certainly fair to ask Buck whether he stands by his previous bravado.

And that’s where things took a turn for the weird:

Phil Mattingly [00:03:05] You know, the president has once again reiterated his call for a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban. You know, back in 2020, you went viral. He posted this video after a similar plea. Take a watch.

Ken Buck (on video): I have a message for Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke: If you want to take everyone’s AR-15 in America, why don’t you swing by my office in Washington DC and start with this one? Come and take it.

Mattingly: Look, I come from a place where all my friends have guns. Many of them use ARs. I guess my question is, is do you concern as a federal official, as a lawmaker, as somebody who legislates that something like that maybe diminishes the impact of what this moment is and kind of the conversation that’s happening, at least if you’re trying to reach a resolution on issues.

Buck: Well, if Joe Biden is interested in reaching a resolution on the issue, let him deal with the southern border. We have drugs coming across the southern border. And this crisis, this mental health crisis that we have in this country has a direct relationship to our drug laws being loosened and the lack of funding at the state level for mental health services. So let Joe Biden deal with some of the issues that are underlying the very serious. And I have to tell you, my heart goes out every time we have one of these shootings, too, to the victims and their families of these shootings. But it doesn’t it doesn’t lessen the burden that Joe Biden has in finding solutions to these problems other than just blaming the gun all the time for the problem that he in part is causing by his policies on the border.

This senseless tire-screeching pivot to the southern border in response to a question about Buck more or less threatening violence against anyone who wants to “take” his AR-15 is as jarring written out as it played out on camera (watch above). It literally makes no sense whatsoever, and the reporter’s quizzical reaction to Buck speaking is subtly comedic in its own right. But then Mattingly refocused on the conversation back on subject at hand:

Mattingly: So even if I stipulate everything you said related to the president, what’s the burden on you as a lawmaker in the wake of these? You noted, every time one of these happens, your heart goes out. You feel awful. The fact that they happened so many times that you have to say every time, that would seem to be a pretty significant problem nationally. So what’s the burden on you as a federal official, as a lawmaker to do something about this, regardless of what you think it is but to do something?

Buck: Right. No, I absolutely acknowledge that. And my burden is to make sure I follow the Constitution. And the Second Amendment protects- there’s more than 2 million AR-15s. As you said, you have some friends with AR-15s. They’re not a danger to anybody. [Pols emphasis] The idea that we’re going to confiscate 2 million weapons in this country is is pure folly. The idea that we’re going to ban a particular kind of weapon as if some other weapon won’t be used…

And that’s it. The answer from Buck is there’s nothing that can be done, and AR-15s (or persons wielding them) “are not a danger to anybody”–absolutely stunning after this week’s in-depth report in the Washington Post about the ubiquity and military-grade lethality of these weapons. Buck makes another generic call to address “the mental health issues that we face,” but after mangling Colorado’s ERPO law beyond recognition there’s no reason to believe anything Buck says beyond “the Second Amendment protects”–which is where his comprehension of the issue appears to end.

No one is proposing to “confiscate” the 20 million–not 2 million–AR-15s in America. But it’s clear that Buck has a lot more to learn about both Colorado and federal gun laws before flapping his jaws on the subject again. It is a disgrace to the very real victims of gun violence Buck claims sympathy for to be either this ignorant or dishonest.