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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) says constituents are telling him that high-capacity magazines should not be banned because people need "at least 50 rounds" to shoot down government drones.

During Thursday interview on Freedom 107 radio, host Jeff Akin asked the Texas Republican how he felt about using unnamed aerial drones for domestic law enforcement.

"It's pretty offensive to most of us," Gohmert opined. "Most of us think if you're going to use a drone and fly over our homes to analyze what's going on in our backyard -- not a lot of talk's been given -- but if you can fly over in the backyard, you can use all kinds of technology to see what's happening inside the home as well. And I know there's been a judge, and this former judge sure thinks you ought to have a warrant to do that kind of thing."

"But I had somebody last week in Washington from either Georgia or Alabama that was saying, 'Look, this goes back to we have got to have at least 50 rounds in our magazines because on average that's about how many it takes to bring down a drone.' I hope he was kidding, I don't know for sure."

"It is serious when the government decides, let's just watch every little thing Americans are doing," he added. "It's big brother taken to a whole new scale."

While they were on the topic of guns and the Second Amendment, Akin also wondered what bills liberals were planning "that could violate that amendment."

"They want the elimination of firearms in America," Gohmert declared. "Some of them have the idea that the Second Amendment was there to allow hunting, not true. You know, it is for our protection -- and the Founders' quotes make that very clear -- including against a government that could run amuck."

"You know, we've got some people who think that Sharia law ought to be the law of the land, forget the Constitution," he asserted. "But the guns are there, that Second Amendment is there to make sure all the rest of the amendments are followed."

Gohmert said that he understood the emotional nature of the issue because one of his friends had lost a husband due to gun violence, but he insisted that "we've got to let our head be what prevails."

"Sometime when you run in with your heart, you make bad laws."

(h/t: Think Progress)

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New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Sunday asserted that the National Rifle Association (NRA) had been "revealed as an insane organization" that "has this vision that we're living in a Mad Max movie" because it wants to put more guns in schools instead of supporting universal background checks and limits on military-style weapons.

During a panel segment on ABC, former Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said she supported universal background checks and a ban on high-capacity magazines, but "both sides have overplayed" their arguments on gun control after the December massacre of 20 school children in Newtown, Connecticut.

"We've gotten glimpse into the mindset of the pro-gun people," Krugman observed. "And we've seen certainly with [NRA CEO] Wayne LaPierre and some of these others, it's bizarre, they have this vision that we're living in a Mad Max movie and that nothing can be done about it, that America cannot manage unless everybody's prepared to shoot intruders, that the idea that we have a police force that provides public safety is somehow totally impractical, despite the fact that that is in fact the way we live."

"Now the craziness of the pro-gun lobby has been revealed," he added. "And that has got to move the debate and got to move legislation, at least to some degree."

But Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta said that he was comfortable with the NRA's opposition to universal background checks because the idea was a "perfect example of why Washington is broke."

"I know people will get guns no matter what laws we pass, just like the illegal drugs," Barletta argued.

"I just caught you on a false statement there," Krugman interrupted. "Because at least I do believe that guns are the root. There are crazy people everywhere, but mass murders are a lot more common here... I looked at the international differences, and countries that have effective gun control have a lot fewer incidents."

"Will banning a spoon stop obesity? Of course not," Barletta quipped.

"There are plenty of gun owners that are fine, but the NRA is now revealed as an insane organization," Krugman pointed out. "And that matters quite a lot."