All Sen. Lindsey Graham needs in a natural disaster or the End Times is, apparently, an AR-15.
America’s apparent first prepper Senator told Fox News Sunday that he plans to ward off “gangs” who think about looting in his neighborhood after a natural disaster with his assault rifle. Graham had been asked about the gun control debate following the shootings in Atlanta and Boulder earlier this month, the latter of which was carried out with a gun similar to an AR-15.
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“I own an AR-15,” Graham told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “If there’s a natural disaster in South Carolina where the cops can’t protect my neighborhood, my house will be the last one that the gang will come to because I can defend myself.”
After the Boulder shooting, President Joe Biden called for another assault weapons ban. Congress passed a law banning assault weapons in 1994, but it expired in 2005, when Biden and Graham were both in the Senate.
Graham has made a point of mentioning his own assault rifle before in arguing against gun control, as the Washington Post reported. “I own an AR-15, I’ve got it at my house,” he told “Meet the Press” in 2012. “The question is, if you deny me the right to buy another one, have you made America safer?”
“I don’t suggest you take my right to buy an AR-15 away from me because I don’t think it will work and I do believe better security in schools is a good place to start.”
And in 2019, while pushing for a “red flag” law, which would allow family members to ask a court to remove guns from someone who might be a danger to others or themselves, Graham again brought up his AR-15 but said he had only shot it twice at that point, calling it “more of a memorabilia thing.”
Graham splits his time between the home he owns in Seneca, South Carolina, and his other home in Washington, D.C. In the past nine years, there have been exactly zero reports of Seneca residents being forced to fight off “gangs” coming into their neighborhoods after natural disasters.
Graham was roasted for his reasoning on Twitter.
During his appearance Sunday, Graham also dismissed the recent shootings in Atlanta and Boulder as issues of mental illness, not easy access to guns—despite the fact that the suspected Atlanta shooter purchased the gun used in the shooting just hours before beginning a killing spree that left eight people dead, and the Boulder suspect bought the AR-15-style pistol used in that shooting less than a week before. Between those two shootings alone, 18 people were killed.
“Most of these problems have a lot to do with mental health. Count me in for addressing that issue,” Graham said, citing red flag laws as an example of potential bipartisan agreement on gun reforms.
Graham also challenged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring a vote on a bill banning assault weapons.
“There’s some things we can do, but at the end of the day if you think an assault weapons ban is what the country needs, bring it to the floor of the United States Senate and vote on it,” Graham said.
