Updated: Sept.9, 3:16 p.m.

Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg suggested a link between a President Barack Obama presidency and the need for greater gun regulations during a visit this week to a local manufacturer of gun parts, the Ravalli Republic newspaper reported.

“If Obama is president, maybe you need to spend more time developing a gun lock, a trigger lock,” Rehberg said with a chuckle to the owners of a machine manufacturing shop in Stevensville, according to the newspaper. The shop, Bitterroot Tool and Machine, produces bullet-loaders, among other things.

One of the shop owners reportedly said she was not offended and took the Congressman’s comment as a joke.

Rehberg later issued a statement clarifying that his remarks were in the context of Obama representing “a real threat” to the Second Amendment and a individual’s right to own a gun. He cited Obama’s record of support for gun control during his days in the Illinois Legislature and the U.S. Senate, as well as Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s record of support for trigger locks.

“Which is exactly why I, in all seriousness, advised a gun parts manufacturer in Montana that trigger locks may be a growth industry for their business if the president and his allies get their way,” he said.