DC Cops: Lawmaker's Assault Rifle Not a Problem

Gun laws don't apply to congressman's office
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2015 3:33 AM CDT
DC Cops: Lawmaker's Assault Rifle Not a Problem
Gowdy's suit is also apparently legal.   (Congressman Ken Buck)

Critics of conservative GOP Rep. Ken Buck's fondness for guns appear to have shot themselves in the foot. After the congressman tweeted a photo of himself and Rep. Trey Gowdy holding an assault rifle in his office last week, police received complaints that the AR-15 might violate Washington, DC's strict gun laws. "We assume the DC Metropolitan Police will want to have a little chat with Rep. Buck about this," wrote the Colorado Pols blog. Capitol police explained that Congress has exempted itself from local gun laws, and under federal law, "members of Congress may maintain firearms within the confines of their office," the New York Daily News reports.

Buck tells the Hill that he received police permission to keep the American flag-painted rifle in his office, where it's usually in a locked case under his Second Amendment flag. He says it's a "beautiful, patriotic paperweight," and close inspection of the photo "will show that the bolt carrier assembly is not in the rifle; it is in fact in Colorado." Buck used the incident for a fundraising email yesterday, reports the Denver Post. "The actions by Anti-Gun Liberals against Trey Gowdy and me are just another attempt to strip us of our rights," he wrote, asking for donations "to help strengthen our fight against anti-gun activists." (In 2012, a woman was arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at Gowdy.)

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