A Tennessee lawmaker who compared pressure cookers to guns used in mass shootings is refusing to apologize for his joke while arguing lawmakers' efforts to ban certain firearms as the ones being 'classless and tasteless.'
In a photo posted to Republican Sen. Stacey Campfield's blog on Sunday, what he calls an 'Assault Pressure Cooker' is seen labeled as a 'large-capacity' weapon able to cook 'for hours without reloading.'
Some of its parts include a 'muzzle break thingy that goes "up"' and a 'tactical pistol grip,' all colored in what he calls an 'evil, black.'
Assault Pressure Cooker: This embellished photo of a kitchen tool by Sen. Stacey Campfield sarcastically compares it to the firearms lawmakers are trying ban across the country
The picture appeared in a blog post titled Here Comes Feinstein Again, in a nod to Democratic Sen Diane Feinstein of California who is one of the biggest politicians rallying for tighter gun control across the country.
As obviously sarcastic as he claims to know it is, he defended critics' attacks of it being 'tasteless' on Wednesday.
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'I think it's tasteless when Obama will drag everybody he can up to Capitol Hill and try to pass gun control,’ he told ABC News. 'I think that was classless and tasteless. I don't hear them complaining about that too much.'
One critic posting to his blog called his posting 'insensitive,' however, with two pressure cookers having been used in the deadly Boston Marathon bombing to kill and injure scores of people.
'Three people dead, one an eight year old child and you think it's something to laugh about?' the upset reader wrote.
Insensitive? Responding to critics calling his comparison of pressure cookers to assault weapons as insensitive he argues that the comparison is just as ridiculous as lawmakers' efforts to ban certain firearms
'I was showing the hypocrisy of Diane Feinstein, the gun grabbers, of their inability to realize that it is a person that does activity, not an inanimate object, be it a gun or a pressure cooker,' he told ABC.
Another commenter on his blog wrote in his defense.
'Nowhere in this post do I see anyone laughing over death. The post is about double standards,' they posted.
Several others applauded him for standing up against what they believe are ongoing attacks and threats to their Second Amendment rights.
'Inappropriate? Me? Never!' Campfield titled a follow-up post on Monday to address accusations allegedly by the media calling it an 'inappropriate' picture.
He defended that his push to ban pressure cookers should be nothing more astonishing than victims of the Sandy Hook shooting wanting tighter gun control.
Comparison: A Bushmaster AR-15,semi-automatic rifle, the type of gun the killer used in the Sandy school massacre in Connecticut has been labeled an assault weapon by gun control advocacy groups
In that December attack at a Connecticut elementary school 20 students, aged 6 and 7, were killed along with six adults.
A semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle and two pistols were used to carry out the attack by a lone gunman, according to authorities.
'If my post was inappropriate talking about "crock pot control" then where is the outrage from the left when they push for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting?'
- Sen Stacey Campfield
'If my post was inappropriate talking about "crock pot control" then where is the outrage from the left when they push for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting? Im sorry if I exposed your double standard....
Well, not really,' he wrote.
This isn’t Campfield’s first bout with controversy.
His previous work has included a so-called Don't Say Gay bill that would have prohibited schools from discussing homosexuality with their students.
He later modified it to allow private discussions about homosexuality with students, so long as the parents are made aware.
He has also tried to cut welfare payments to families whose children don't perform to certain standards in school.
UPI reports that he dropped his support earlier this month after an 8-year-old girl whom he called ‘a prop’ followed him around Capitol Hill carrying a signed petition.