Ken Buck, Trey Gowdy snap photo holding AR-15 rifle at House office building, D.C. police to investigate
GOP congressmen Ken Buck, Trey Gowdy snap photo holding AR-15 rifle at House office building, D.C. police to investigate
A picture of two Republican congressmen brandishing an AR-15 rifle in a House office building has drawn the attention of law enforcement officials in D.C., which bans such guns.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) tweeted a picture last week of him and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) holding a semi-automatic weapon painted with an American flag design.
“@TGowdySC stopped by today and we got a photo with my AR-15,” Buck tweeted.
Both lawmakers worked as district attorneys prior to their election to Congress. Gowdy is the chairman of a special House committee investigating the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
A liberal Colorado blog flagged Buck’s tweet Friday, noting Washington, D.C., prohibits guns including AR-15s under a ban on assault weapons.
On Tuesday, the office of the attorney general in D.C. said it has asked the Metropolitan Police Department to investigate.
“We have received several inquiries about the situation and have referred them and all relevant information to the Metropolitan Police Department for investigation,” a spokesman for the office told the Denver Post.
Through a spokeswoman, Buck said he is allowed to hang the gun in his office.
“While safety protocols call for all guns to be treated as if they are loaded, this one isn’t,” Buck said. “Further, a close inspection of the only public photo of the rifle will show that the bolt carrier assembly is not in the rifle; it is in fact in Colorado.”
“As for how it arrived at the office: we received permission from the U.S. Capitol Police to bring the inoperable rifle to the office in a locked case where it was inspected and approved for display.”
The Capitol Police said its regulations don’t bar members from keeping guns.
“CPB regulations specifically provide that Members of Congress may maintain firearms within the confines of their office and they and any employee or agent of any Member of Congress may transport within the Capitol Grounds firearms unloaded and securely wrapped,” Capitol Police spokeswoman Lieutenant Kimberly Schneider said in a statement Tuesday.
A Gowdy spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 to gun down 20 children and six adults in the December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.