Appearing on CNN’s The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer on March 11, Mark Kelly said he planned from the start to hand over an AR-15 rifle he purchased to the Tuscon Police Department.
Blitzer then quoted a section from the March 9 Breitbart News story on Kelly’s purchase, and asked Kelly to respond.
Breitbart News then began investigating the details surrounding the purchase, including visiting the gun store. Suddenly, Kelly announced on his Facebook page that he was not going to keep the AR-15, which he has yet to pick up from the store.
Kelly responded that he went into the gun store with a plan to buy a .45, “and if we had the opportunity, to buy the AR-15 as well.” He said he didn’t “know the timing,” but he and his people “had a plan for when [they] were going to announce it on Facebook.”
Attention to this issue has been intense, because Kelly bought the AR-15 on March 5 but did not announce that he was turning it over to Tucson PD until three days later.
During the interview, Kelly criticized the AR-15 as a “deadly” weapon “designed for the military” – one which people can buy too easily. But it is unclear what it proves if Kelly, a man with an apparently immaculate record, does not trigger any red flags in a gun purchase background check.
As it now stands, his purchase an AR-15 is simply another purchase of a great rifle by a law-abiding citizen. And that process will get harder and harder to complete if Kelly gets his way with gun control.
When Blitzer asked Kelly if he was turning in the .45 as well, Kelly said: “That one I’ll keep.”
This post has been updated for copy editing.