Freshman U.S. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., is co-sponsoring a bill that would make the AR-15 the National Gun of the United States.
The legislation, H.B. 1095, known as the AR-15 National Gun Act, was sponsored by Alabama Republican Barry Moore, FOX New York reported. Georgia Republican Andrew Clyde and Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert have also signed on as co-sponsors.
"The anti-Second Amendment group won’t stop until they take away all your firearms," Moore said Tuesday at a gun shop in Troy, Alabama to announce the bill. "One rule to remember: any government that would take away one right would take away them all."
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Text of the bill was not available Thursday and was not posted on the Congressional website.
Santos, whose embattled electoral victory has dominated his first weeks in Congress, has not publicly said anything about the legislation. However, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul criticized him in a statement for attaching his name to the bill.
"This weapon of war has been used in mass shootings across the United States - from my hometown of Buffalo, where the shooter used a modified AR-15 to murder ten people in a despicable act of white supremacist terrorism, to Parkland, Florida, where the shooter killed seventeen innocent people with an AR-15-style weapon," she said.
"The families and friends of those killed in Parkland have become heroic advocates for gun safety - including the Beigel-Schulman family of Dix Hills, who fight for change in memory of their son, Scott," the governor added. "This bill, which attempts to glorify the weapons that have been part of such horrific tragedies, adds unforgivable insult to injury for those families."
The AR-15 has been used in several high-profile mass shootings and prompted some to call for the outlaw of the weapon along with other firearms.
Santos previously wore an AR-15 lapel pin on Capitol Hill. In an interview with the news outlet last week, he said, "From the moment we come back from being in recess I'm going to be introducing some original bills and I think the district is going to appreciate them because they are really district-focused bills."
Fox News Digital has reached out to Santos' office.
