On Thursday, 16 Republican senators voted to move forward with debate on gun control legislation. Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman's response: hang them.

Smitherman, a Republican who oversees the state's oil and gas industry (the name is a bit of an anachronism) retweeted an image listing all 16 GOP senators, along with an image of a noose with "treason" on top of it:

RT @psychscriv: Make sure none of these people have seats in 2014. twitter.com/PsychScriv/sta…We are in trouble when these Rs side w/ Sen Reid

— Barry Smitherman (@SmithermanTX) April 11, 2013

Smitherman still has a long way to go if he wants to claim the biggest overreaction to gun control legislation. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) alleged that national firearms databases could lead to "evil consequences"—such as genocide.

Update: The image has been taken down, but here it is:

@smithermanTX/Twitter

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Tim Murphy is a reporter at Mother Jones. Email him with tips and insights at tmurphy [at] motherjones [dot] com. RSS | Twitter