Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, warned gun owners Friday that any fight over firearms would be “a short one,” because the federal government has an extensive cache of nuclear weapons.

After Joe Biggs tweeted that Mr. Swalwell “wants a war” over the Second Amendment, Mr. Swalwell responded, “And it would be a short war my friend.”

“The government has nukes.Too many of them. But they’re legit,” the congressman tweeted. “I’m sure if we talked we could find common ground to protect our families and communities.”

Mr. Swalwell quickly added that “No one is nuking anyone or threatening that,” but by then it was too late.

“Swalwell 2020: Nuke the Resisters,” tweeted conservative pundit Ben Shapiro.

How quickly Democrats went from “we only want sensible restrictions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the insane” to “we will nuke your ass if you don’t hand over your weapons” - that’s what Dems regaining some power does https://t.co/G2ank3YOzE — Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) November 16, 2018

Eric, I get that your use of “nukes” was sarcasm, and, yep, twitter doesn’t do nuance.



But understand how many of us gun clinging Americans recoil at the word “confiscation” and will do whatever we have to do to defend our guns against a government that would take them. Thanks https://t.co/GDDsm0gt0U

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) November 16, 2018

Mr. Swalwell has long tangled with gun-rights supporters over limits on firearms access. In May, he proposed outlawing “military-style semiautomatic weapons” and requiring owners to sell them to the government or face prosecution.

He told the “gun trolls” erupting over his Friday nukes comment, “Don’t be so dramatic.”

Don’t be so dramatic. No one is nuking anyone or threatening that. I’m telling you this is not the 18th Century. The argument that you would go to war with your government if an assault weapons ban was in place is ludicrous and inflames the gun debate. Which is what you want. https://t.co/oX0rY7Nbs1 — Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) November 16, 2018

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