Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke has dropped the normal pretense surrounding the gun control debate.
He promises that if he wins, he’s going to force law-abiding citizens to surrender their firearms by sending the police door-to-door.
he Democrats, well-known for wanting strict gun control policies, have always hinted they want to take away the 2nd Amendment… but no Democrat has ever admitted it.
O’Rourke made sure to let all Americans know that should he be elected, he’s not playing around.
Appearing in Charlottesville, Va., a reporter asked O’Rourke what he thought of concerned Americans who fear he might take away assault weapons through banning and buy back programs.
Simply put, he said he didn’t care.
“I want to be really clear,” he began, “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
I was asked how I'd address people's fears that we will take away their assault rifles.
I want to be clear: That's exactly what we're going to do. Americans who own AR-15s and AK-47s will have to sell their assault weapons. All of them. pic.twitter.com/YbnSsz3bVy
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 2, 2019
O’Rourke spoke Thursday at Tufts University in his first campaign stop in Massachusetts, saying that a mandatory government buyback program for AK-47 and AR-15 rifles is needed because other gun control measures don’t do enough to remove weapons already on the streets.
He said that while universal background checks and red flag laws that allow guns to be removed from those deemed a danger to themselves or others will save lives, neither will address the millions of assault-style weapons already in private hands.
He said the country needs to buy back those weapons.
“There are more than 10 million AR-15 and AK-47s on the streets of our communities today and so we must take the necessary though politically difficult step of saying that we have to buy those AR-15 and AK-47s,” O’Rourke said. “This is a mandate that every single American who owns one of them will have to fulfill.”
Or else?
The Associated Press contributed to this article