Like using a 'bazooka to hunt squirrels': John Thune ridiculed for 'prairie dog' defense of AR-15 ownership

United States Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-South Dakota) triggered an avalanche of questions on Tuesday when he offered a tenuous defense of average citizens owning AR-15 semiautomatic rifles.

"In my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints," Thune told a gaggle of reporters at the Capitol. "And so I think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them. And I think the challenge you have already is that there are literally millions of them available in this country."

Watch below via Vox's Aaron Rupar:

First came the cute pictures of prairie dogs, which have a reputation for invading properties and damaging crops.

Those images were followed by perplexed Twitter users asking why a weapon as powerful as an AR-15 is necessary to take out prairie dogs and other small rodents, whom an AR-15 would blow to smithereens in a single shot.

People also recoiled at Thune's "insulting" prioritization of unnecessary firepower over protecting the public from gun violence. There have been 247 mass shootings in 2021 as of this publication.