Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, retweeted a controversial message on Twitter Wednesday stating the 1st Amendment was not implemented to protect posting "retarded" tweets.

The conversation was spurred by a tweet regarding the Second Amendment.

"The 2nd Amendment was put in place so you could defend yourself from the gov't with a musket," Ian Kenyon tweeted. "Not so you can collect assault rifles."

"The 1st Amendment was put in place so you could print pamphlets to distribute in the town square," an account with the username SakakilsCute, whose Twitter photo depicts a man in briefs with an anime character, responded. "Not so you can post retarded tweets."

King has since deleted the conversation from his Twitter account.



Following the Las Vegas mass shooting, which took the lives of 59 and injured more than 500, Democrats have been calling for harsher gun control restrictions.

However, the Trump administration has noted that now is not the time to discuss new policy measures concerning gun control.

Even so, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit the sale and possession of bump-stock equipment.