Article from the Washington Free Beacon by Jeffrey Cimmino.

Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) touted his support for the Second Amendment in an interview with NBC Montana by saying he uses the right to bear arms when he goes hunting, but records indicate he hasn’t been issued a hunting license since 2012.

In response to a question from host Maritsa Georgiou about whether the Second Amendment is a tough issue for a “Democrat in a gun state,” Tester answered, “Like I’ve said, Maritsa, for 20 years, we butchered beef and hogs on the farm and when you butcher an animal you start out with a gun. And that’s the way it is, it’s the way it’s done.”

“It is a tool to me, I use it to control pests, I use it when I’m able to go hunting, to be able to go hunting,” Tester continued.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks records show Tester has not had a hunting license since 2012, the last time he was up for reelection, according to a Fox News report from last month. There is no record of him having a hunting or fishing license for 12 of out the last 16 years.

Read the entire article at the Washington Free Beacon.

Image Credit: By KAZ Vorpal (Flickr: Declaration of Independence, with Firearm) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons