If you spend any time at all on Twitter (and believe me, I don't blame you if you don't), Texas Republican Congressman Steve Stockman makes a habit of posting his insane thoughts and comments online. But even for him, this latest announcement only shows what a tasteless buffoon he is. (Yes, I know I already said he was a Republican, and that the buffoon part is a redundancy.)

While congressional gun control advocates and gun-rights supporters duke it out with words and parliamentary tactics, Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman is showing off his Second Amendment fervor by doing what some consider unthinkable: giving away a Bushmaster AR-15rifle, the same weapon crazed murderer Adam Lanza used in his December massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Stockman, a congressional freshman whose campaign boasts on Twitter that he is 'the most conservative Congressman in Texas,' is angling for a second term.

His campaign - not his government office, spokesman Donny Ferguson told MailOnline - is offering the unusual prize to entrants who join his online mailing list.

Twitter erupted late Wednesday after the congressman announced the prize giveaway by tweeting: 'Want to win a FREE AR-15? Congressman Steve Stockman is giving one away! ... Grab this gun before Obama does!'

The Stockman campaign sparked outrage in April with a bumper sticker reading 'If babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted. Vote Pro-Life!'

Wednesday's tweeted slap at President Barack Obama seemed, to some, a calculated attempt to incite gun-control advocates. But Ferguson, Stockman's spokesman, told MailOnline that his boss has heard little other than praise.

'Here in the congressional office the response has been overwhelmingly positive,' he said. 'What Democrats have called in have been universally violent and mentally unstable.'

'There is nothing more psychotic and violent than an anti-gun activist. But people across the country love the idea and support the civil right to keep and bear arms.'

But one prominent Democratic communicator fired back online, lambasting Stockman for what he suggested was insensitivity.

'Thanks for your feelings for the parents of 20 dead children in CT,' Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse tweeted. 'Just had to pick that gun, huh?'#

Pro-Stockman partisans rushed to his aid, including one who argued in a tweet that 'if the school had 1 guard on duty with an AR-15 those people would be alive today.'