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Monday, Jan 14, 2013 10:58 PM UTC

Texas GOPer threatens impeachment over executive action on guns

Rep. Steve Stockman says he will seek any number of ways around an executive order on gun control VIDEO

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Topics: Video, Gun Control, Impeachment, Gun Violence, House Republicans, Barack Obama, Texas, Steve Stockman,

Texas GOPer threatens impeachment over executive action on guns (Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

If President Obama uses an executive order to pass gun control measures, a Texas Republican says he could file articles of impeachment.

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, called a potential executive action “an unconstitutional and unconscionable attack on the very founding principles of this republic,” after the president said in a press conference that there are a number of steps he can take through executive action to implement gun control, should Congress fail to act.

“The White House’s recent announcement they will use executive orders and executive actions to infringe on our constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms is an unconstitutional and unconscionable attack on the very founding principles of this republic,” Stockman said in the statement. “I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment.”

“If the President is allowed to suspend constitutional rights on his own personal whims, our free republic has effectively ceased to exist,” Stockman wrote.

As the debate over gun control continues to heat up, opponents have managed to come up with a number of ill-timed events (like Wisconsin’s Indianhead Rifle and Pistol Club, which is trying to hold its annual gun show in a local elementary school), while conservatives make questionable and sometimes inflammatory statements on the consequences of legislation.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., for example, echoed a  statement by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, last week, in which he suggested that an assault weapons ban could include hammers and machetes. Blackburn, in response to a comment on assault weapons bans and other gun control measures, said on CNN on Sunday: “The problem is, it could be a hammer, a hatchet, a car, a gun. You’re still needing to look at this mental health, and you have to make certain that you’re protecting an individual’s rights.”

Watch:

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

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