GOP congressman confronted live on CNN over his gun-toting ‘come and take it’ video

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) was cornered on CNN's "The Lead" Tuesday by anchor Phil Mattingly with a "come and take it" video he posted in 2020, of a weapon similar to that used in the rampage at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee this week that left six people dead.

"You know, the president has once again reiterated his call for a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban," said Mattingly. "You know, back in 2020 you went viral. You posted this video after a similar plea. Take a watch."

"I have a message for Joe Biden and Beto O'Rourke," said Buck in the video, gesturing at a rifle on his office wall. "If you want to take everyone's AR-15 in America, you swing by my office in Washington, D.C. and start with this one. Come and take it."

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

"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," said Buck, skating over the fact that the drug cartels in Mexico actually get most of their guns from the United States. "My heart goes out every time we have one of these shootings, 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."

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"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?" Mattingly pressed him. "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 right?"

"No, I absolutely acknowledge that and my burden is to make sure I follow the Constitution," said Buck. "As you said, you have some friends with AR-15s. They're not a danger to anybody. The idea that we're going to confiscate 2 million weapons in this country 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. I can remember. 20 years ago, the ban was on handguns. We've gotta, we've gotta stop handguns from being used, and handguns kill far more people than a rifle like an AR-15 ... so ultimately we need to stop the violence by making sure we take violent criminals off the streets and addressing the mental health issue that we face. That's my burden."

Watch video below or at this link.

Phil Mattingly grills Ken Buck about AR-15s www.youtube.com