Jan. 6 attacker says he desperately needs his gun to kill snakes

Legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney on Wednesday found an excerpt in court documents in which an accused Jan. 6 attacker tried to make the case that he needed his gun because of snakes.

Charles Hand's lawyers wrote in a motion to get his gun back he had to kill a snake with a shovel, presumably meaning he used the shovel to kill the snake.

Hand explained that he and his wife live about 75-100 feet from a pond in Butler, Georgia. He said a six-foot-long water moccasin had approached his house. Water moccasins don't generally grow larger than two feet, the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory explained in a fact sheet.

"Hand claims he needs a firearm, in part, because he recently killed a Water Moccasin snake on his property with a shovel since no firearm was available," the DOJ cited. "Such consideration is outside the Bail Reform Act framework. In any event, other alternatives exist for addressing wildlife on his property."

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Hand and his wife have both been charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building and uttering loud, threatening or abusive language or engaging in disorderly conduct in any of the Capitol Buildings.