Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas) claimed to have held an AR-15 and immediately regretted it, saying it weighed as much as "10 boxes that you might be moving."
Speaking to reporters last week, she added that AR-15s use a ".50 caliber" bullet that ought to be licensed.
"I've held an AR-15 in my hand," she said. "I wish I hadn’t. It is as heavy as 10 boxes that you might be moving. And the bullet that is utilized, a .50 caliber, these kinds of bullets need to be licensed and do not need to be on the streets."
Jackson Lee's remarks drew mockery online, as AR-15s are not particularly heavy rifles, weighing around seven to nine pounds when loaded. Their relative lightness has helped them become popular for hunting and home defense.
AR-15s commonly use .223 Remington or 5.56 NATO ammunition. The AR-15 cannot be chambered in the .50 BMG caliber—one of the largest rifle rounds in the world and commonly used in military machine guns or rifles designed for long-distance shooting.
Jackson Lee, a gun control proponent, has called for a ban on AR-15s and other so-called assault weapons, the definition of which varies from state to state. She said House members would need to "flood" the U.S. Senate in order to spur movement on gun control.
She also said the country is facing a "domestic crisis" related to guns, comparing it to the conflict with the Taliban.
The Washington Free Beacon made a SuperCut in 2018 of gun control advocates bungling facts about firearms, and it included many Democratic elected officials.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) remarked it was legal to "hunt humans" with high-capacity magazines, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg had to be corrected on the difference between automatic and semi-automatic weapons, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) warned about "rapid-fire magazines."