A state senator from Georgia cheekily suggested a ban on hammers and frying pans, saying the objects kill more people than some kinds of guns.
"More murders were committed last year with hammers than with shotguns, rifles or AK-47s," Sen. Bill Jackson (R-Appling) said on Monday, according to the Morris News Service.
"If they're going to take the guns, let's take the frying pans and the hammers," he added.
Jackson made the comments during a discussion of a bill intended to help prevent mass shootings. However, the senator could not name the source for his claim.
The FBI has only released partial information for crime in 2012; however, in 2011, blunt objects, such as clubs, bats and hammers, did kill more people than rifles and more people than shotguns, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report.
The report does not specify how many people were killed by AK-47s.
In previous years, blunt objects may have caused more deaths than rifles and more deaths than shotguns, but at least 14 times more people were killed by firearms (in total) than by blunt objects each year since at least as far back as 2007, according to that same data.
The Huffington Post reached out to Jackson for comment but did not immediately hear back. However, a Senate aide acknowledged that he "may have been shooting from the hip."
Jackson is one of three floor leaders in the Georgia Senate appointed to effect Republican Gov. Nathan Deal's agenda in the legislature.
Jackson isn't the first politician to bring up the danger of hammers during a discussion about guns.
In January, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) mockingly referred to a hammer as an "assault weapon" during an interview on the Dennis Miller Show. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have also made similar comments about hammers.
Last month Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced gun control legislation in Congress that would ban about 150 kinds of military-style firearms, as well as certain kinds of magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. The bill includes a number of exemptions, including for hunting and sporting guns and for guns used by the government and law enforcement. The bill would also exempt any guns owned before the date it becomes law, if it passes.
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