Texas congressman's re-election campaign will give away a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle - the same model Adam Lanza took to Newtown, Connecticut

One supporter of freshman congressman Steve Stockman will win the gun, subject to a background check

Crazed gunman Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012



The top Democratic National Committee spokesman tweeted, 'Just had to pick that gun, huh?'

NRA partisans argued on Twitter that an armed guard could have stopped Lanza before his massacre

While congressional gun control advocates and gun-rights supporters duke it out with words and parliamentary tactics, Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman is showing off his Second Amendment fervor by doing what some consider unthinkable: giving away a Bushmaster AR-15rifle, the same weapon crazed murderer Adam Lanza carried to a Connecticut elementary school where he massacred nearly two dozen children.

Stockman, a congressional freshman whose campaign boasts on Twitter that he is 'the most conservative Congressman in Texas,' is angling for a second term.



His campaign - not his government office, spokesman Donny Ferguson told MailOnline - is offering the unusual prize to entrants who join his online mailing list.

Twitter erupted late Wednesday after the congressman announced the prize giveaway by tweeting: 'Want to win a FREE AR-15? Congressman Steve Stockman is giving one away! ... Grab this gun before Obama does!'

'You really are an unpleasant blowhard of a man, aren't you?' tweeted one liberal gun control advocate in response

The Stockman campaign sparked outrage in April with a bumper sticker reading 'If babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted. Vote Pro-Life!'

Wednesday's tweeted slap at President Barack Obama seemed, to some, a calculated attempt to incite gun-control advocates. But Ferguson, Stockman's spokesman, told MailOnline that his boss has heard little other than praise.

'Here in the congressional office the response has been overwhelmingly positive,' he said. 'What Democrats have called in have been universally violent and mentally unstable.'

'There is nothing more psychotic and violent than an anti-gun activist. But people across the country love the idea and support the civil right to keep and bear arms.'

Rep. Steve Stockman's 2014 re-election campaign is giving away an AR-15 rifle, the same model used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead. But most responses have been positive, his spokesman said



Brad Woodhouse, the Democratic National Committee's communications director, slammed Stockman for his insensitivity toward families of the Newtown victims 'If the [Sandy Hook] school had 1 guard on duty with an AR-15 those people would be alive today,' a Stockman supporter tweeted

But one prominent Democratic communicator fired back online, lambasting Stockman for what he suggested was insensitivity.

'Thanks for your feelings for the parents of 20 dead children in CT,' Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse tweeted. 'Just had to pick that gun, huh?'

Pro-Stockman partisans rushed to his aid, including one who argued in a tweet that 'if the school had 1 guard on duty with an AR-15 those people would be alive today.'

Others noted that Lanza didn't fire his AR-15 during his killing spree, leaving it in the trunk of his car where police later found it, unused.



Connecticut State Police led a line of children away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec. 14, 2012 after gunman Adam Lanza killed 20 of their schoolmates. The NRA argues that an armed guard could have stopped Lanza before he shed any blood

The National Rifle Association, America's largest gun-rights organization with a reported 5 million members, issued a report in April calling for more armed guards in the nation's schools.



Its May convention was a gun-fest of monumental proportions, giving members the opportunity to hold handguns, rifles and shotguns in thousands of makes, models and configurations - including the AR-15.

'I don't know what the big deal is about the AR-15,' NRA member Chuck Smith told MailOnline in Houston on May 4. 'It's just a gun like any other. Should we stop renting Ryder trucks because Tim McVeigh used one to blow up a federal building in Oklahoma?'

'That's just as silly as everything else the gun controllers want,' he said.

The Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle has been labeled an assault weapon by gun control advocates. Congressman Steve Stockman's re-election campaign is giving one away at random to a supporter who joins its email distribution list, provided he or she passes a background check and meets other legal requirements

Culture clash: While gun control advocates cite the safety of children as a primary reason to restrict the availability of high-powered rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, the NRA mad the same equipment available for children to hold, under parental supervision, during its Houston convention

The Stockman campaign's online defenders have emphasized that the winner must be 18 years old and will be subject to the same eligibility requirements of any gun buyer. 'Firearms prizes must be claimed through a licensed firearms dealer in accordance with federal, state and local law,' the contest's rules read. 'Firearms prize winners must meet all legal requirements and will be subject to a dealer’s background check.'



'Eligibility is open only to persons who can lawfully receive and possess the prize, under 18 USC § 922 and any other applicable laws.'

That section of federal law deals with the ownership, transfer, licensing and carrying of firearms.

Pro- and anti-gun advocates clashed on Twitter over Stockman's AR-15 promotion The Stockman re-election campaign claims on Twitter that he is 'the most conservative Congressman in Texas' and boasts a '100% lifetime NRA' rating for his votes on gun control measures

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees 'the right to keep and bear arms.'



But tweets on both sides of the issue kept at it through the night on Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

'When you have to mow down a room full of schoolkids, accept no substitute!' carped one Stockman foe about his campaign's choice of the AR-15.

