Rep. George Santos backs bill to make AR-15 assault rifle the "national gun of the United States"
Warning: Some of what you might see in the above video could be disturbing.
NEW YORK -- Long Island Congressman George Santos has stunned the New York political establishment by backing a bill to make the AR-15 assault rifle the "national gun of the United States."
Gov. Kathy Hochul calls the move "disgusting."
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As CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer reports, you'd think that with all the controversy surrounding his election, Santos would try to keep a low profile in Washington and try to impress his leery constituents with his legislative prowess. But just when you expected him to zig, he zagged and fell into the open arms of the far right wing.
"I think that is disgusting, that a New York state congressman who's done nothing else of consequence would put his name on a bill to make the AR-15, a weapon of mass destruction that's slaughtered people's lives from my hometown of Buffalo last May all the way to the Parkland shooting," Hochul said.
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Hochul slammed Santos for deciding that one of the first legislative acts as a new member of Congress would be to sponsor a bill to make the AR-15 asault weapon the national weapon of the U.S. That's the very weapon used to kill 10 people in a racist mass shooting in Buffalo.
Of course, Hochul shouldn't be surprised. Santos has been proudly sporting an AR-15 lapel pin during much of his time in Washington.
Watch Marcia Kramer's report
The bill was introduced by Alabama Congressman Barry Moore. Co-sponsors, along with Santos, are Congressman Andrew Clyde, a gun store owner from Georgia, and Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who ran a gun-themed restaurant called Shooters Grill.
Santos has been unmasked as a serial liar who has fabricated much of his resume, including his college education, a Holocaust background and his finances.
He got into another tiff about truthfulness with Nassau County legislator Josh Lafazan.
In a tweet, Santos thanked Lafazan for "stopping by his office."
Lafazan responded, "Let's be very clear: I did not 'stop by' your office. I hosted a protest outside your office calling on you to resign, and then hand-delivered you a letter to stop wasting police resources. Can't say I'm surprised you choose to distort the truth here - you're very good at it."
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"It is shocking at every level. We are calling on him to remove his name from that heinous bill and to encourage other members of Congress who are walking around sporting emblems of a gun on their lapels to stop spitting in the faces of the victims of these crimes," Hochul said.
CBS2's Ali Bauman spoke to a Long Island mother whose son was killed in the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting.
Linda Beigel Schulman keeps the image of her son's last breath on display in her Long Island office, and she asked we share it with our audience.
"You need to not turn away, it needs to be upsetting and you need to understand what's going on so we can stop it," she said.
Scott Beigel was a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and one of 17 people killed in the mass shooting on Valentine's Day 2018.
"That AR-15 that they want to make a national gun murdered my son. This is the last second before the AR-15 was fired, and Scott was still standing in the doorway trying to close his classroom door," Schulman said.
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When Schulman heard Santos was supporting the AR-15 National Gun Act, she thought it was a joke.
"The man is literally a psychopath," she said. "We need gun safety. We don't need to put a prize on something that kills people."
In addition to Parkland, AR-15 style rifles were used the shootings in Sandy Hook, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Las Vegas, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, among others.
"It's not just the people who were murdered that are the victims; it's the families, it's the friends of the families, it's the people who support the families. We all need to shout a little louder and make sure that we kill this bill so that that AR-15 doesn't continue to kill our loved ones," Schulman said.
A spokesman for Santos' office declined to comment directly but argued his constituents have been staunch Second Amendment supporters.
Since taking office, the congressman has put his name on 23 bills, including one to encourage colleagues to ban TikTok and another to require the Treasury to mint coins commemorating service dogs.
