Republican Rep. Ken Buck dared Joe Biden and Beto O'Rourke to "come and take" an inoperable AR-15 rifle mounted on his wall in Washington D.C.

The rifle, which has a American flag paint scheme, appears to be the same one Buck held in a 2015 photo.

Buck's rifle is "completely inoperable," a spokesperson told Insider, adding that there's a "trigger lock on it, and the firing pin has been removed."

"Rep. Buck likes to call it his patriotic paperweight," the spokesperson said.

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A Republican lawmaker from Colorado dared former Vice President Joe Biden and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke to "come and take" an inoperable AR-15 mounted on the wall of an office in Washington DC.

"I have a message for Joe Biden and Beto O'Rourke. If you want to take everyone's AR-15s in America, why don't you swing by my office in Washington, DC, and start with this one," Rep. Ken Buck said while standing next to the non-functioning weapon.

"Come and take it," Buck added.

Buck, a strong 2nd Amendment supporter, appeared to refer to recent statements by Democrats suggesting they would enact legislation to regulate firearm ownership. In September 2019, O'Rourke, then a Democratic presidential candidate, said in a tweet, "Hell yes, we're gonna take your AR-15."

O'Rourke's tweet caught the attention of Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain, who replied, "My AR-15 is ready for you Robert Francis," using O'Rourke's middle name.

O'Rourke called Cain's response a "death threat."

—Congressman Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) March 6, 2020

It would be illegal for a member of the general public to have a functioning AR-15 on Capitol grounds.

Lawmakers, however, "may maintain firearms within the confines of their office," a US Capitol Police spokeswoman told The Washington Post in 2015, when Buck tweeted a photo with the AR-15.

Buck's rifle is "completely inoperable," a spokesperson for the lawmaker told Insider, adding that there's a "trigger lock on it, and the firing pin has been removed."

"Rep. Buck likes to call it his patriotic paperweight," the spokesperson said in an email.

Buck's inoperable rifle, which has a distinct American flag paint scheme, appears to be the same one the congressman held in that 2015 photo. Buck said at the time that it was a gift from a business and that he received permission from numerous law-enforcement agencies to have it on Capitol Hill.

"Putting a trigger lock on an inoperable gun is like putting a chastity belt on a eunuch," Buck said. "The only dangerous thing about that gun is if someone took it off the wall and hit somebody else over the head with it."

Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California chastised Buck for his video and also described it as a "threat to shoot politicians he disagrees with."

"These kinds of threats are dangerous and unacceptable," Chu said in a tweet Friday. "We should know better. We promised to be better."