Louisiana Senator resists calls to ban AR-15s and says people need them to shoot feral pigs 

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy gave a creative answer when asked by a reporter on Thursday about possibly banning assault weapons in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. 

Cassidy, 64, in his second term in the Senate, was asked by a reporter from Vice why someone would need an AR-15. 

He responded: ‘Well, if you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you would take it away from them? I’m law abiding, I’ve never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right.’  

Cassidy, according to anti-gun activist group Brady United, has received $2.8million in donations from the National Rifle Association, 10th most among active senators. 

The question comes as the gun control debates rage anew after gunman Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, perpetrated the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade, killing 19 small children and two teachers before being shot dead by police. 

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy gave a creative answer when asked by a reporter on Thursday about possibly banning assault weapons in the wake of the Uvalde shooting

Cassidy, 64, in his second term in the Senate, was asked by a reporter from Vice why someone would need an AR-15

‘Well, if you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you would take it away from them? I’m law abiding, I’ve never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right.’ 

President Joe Biden also plans to visit Uvalde on Sunday. He has called on lawmakers to take on America’s powerful gun-rights lobby and enact ‘common sense gun reforms.’

The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 elementary-age children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

Ramos, notably, used an AR-15 to commit the mass killings.

Democratic Senators, as well as independent Bernie Sanders who caucuses with the Dems, have renewed their call for an assault weapons ban, while Republicans remain ardently opposed and focused on mental health and school secutiry.  

A Texas law enforcement official said Thursday that the Uvalde shooter entered the elementary school building ‘unobstructed’ through a door that was apparently unlocked.

People drop off flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the Robb Elementary School on Thursday in Uvalde, Texas

Salvador Ramos legally purchased two AR-15 style rifles (right) including the one he used in yesterday’s attack after his 18th birthday last week. The gunman also bought more than 300 rounds of ammunition 

The shooting rampage began at 11am when Ramos shot his grandmother. At 11.15am, he sent a message to a girl in Germany telling her he was on his way to ‘shoot an elementary school’. He crashed his truck at 11.30am and made his way to the school with one AR-15 rifle. At 11.32am, he bypassed at least one cop at the school entrance. He got inside, barricaded himself in a classroom and managed to stay there for up to an hour – terrorizing kids – before he was finally gunned down

Victor Escalon, a regional director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the gunman did not initially encounter any law enforcement officers when he entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire.

Law enforcement authorities faced mounting questions and criticism Thursday over how much time elapsed before they stormed a Texas elementary school classroom and put a stop to the rampage.

Many other details about the timing of events and the police response remained murky. 

The motive for the massacre remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history.

The gunman shot his own grandmother in the face minutes before attacking the school, and his text messages indicated that he was in an argument with the 66-year-old grandma about his phone bill.