Robert Francis O'Rourke at the Democratic Debate. Time.
Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke said at the 3rd Democratic Debate that he would, if elected, enforce a mandatory confiscation of AR-15's AK-47's and other "assault weapons". Time. O'Rourke stated that "We’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47" and said "Hell yes" when asked if he was coming to take guns. AR-15's are the most popular rifle sold in America and represent 60% of new weapons sold. O'Rourke also said that any weapons designed for use on the battlefield would be confiscated as well.
My Comment:
I was going to write up a large debate post about last night but in the end this was about the only moment that mattered. Everything else was mostly forgettable with Biden making his predictable gaffes, the socialists joining up against him while the rest tried to make a mark. Most of it was pretty pointless but this moment obviously stuck out from the rest.
This is, of course, essentially a death threat to every gun owner in the country. Robert Francis O'Rourke just said he would send armed men to take away the most popular firearms in the country. This would of course mean death for anyone who didn't give up their arms and for many of the cops sent out to collect them. Much has been made about a Republican lawmaker saying his AR was waiting for O'Rourke with the media and O'Rourke calling it a death threat, but O'Rourke threatened the lives of millions of gun owners first. A little pushback is expected.
It also shows how far the Democrats have fallen on this issue. This kind of statement would have been unthinkable to them even in the 2018 midterms. Indeed, in his run against Ted Cruz even O'Rourke said that people would be able to keep their AR's. Now he's openly calling for confiscation. Given that gun control was widely blamed for the Democrats losing control of congress back in the Clinton years it's a big turn around on the conventional wisdom that gun control is a losing issue for Democrats.
In some ways this is a gift to the GOP and gun rights groups like the NRA. For years the Democrats and gun control groups have been saying "we aren't coming for your guns". Even when that statement didn't make any sense: "we aren't coming for your guns but we are going to ban assault weapons". O'Rourke's statement ensures that everyone now knows that was one of the most obvious lies ever told. They were always coming for our guns.
I am sure that this will likely lead to a boost in both GOP and NRA funding and that both groups will use O'Rourke's statements to fund raise. After all, O'Rourke just confirmed for people that the Democrats are coming for your guns and even if the GOP and NRA have flaws, we still need someone to fight back.
I'm also concerned that this might lead to a panic buy again. We have had around 2 million background checks a month since the end of 2018 but I am guessing that there will be a run on stores that will probably pump that number up to 3 million at least. People want to get their guns now before the possibility of any ban and that might mean that shelves will be bare again. I'm happy that I picked up my rifle and a bunch of ammo and magazines before this election cycle even started. I also hope that prices remain low as people scoop up whatever is out there.
Will this help Robert Francis O'Rourke in the polls? I don't know. I do know that O'Rourke's campaign was failing miserably before he found the gun issue and it has gotten him attention. But Eric Swalwell was pounding on the same issue but never found any traction. I doubt he sees anything other than a temporary boost.
However, I do worry that this will push the Democrats even further to the left on the issue of guns. There wasn't much in the way of pushback at the debate. Only Joe Biden said we had to respect the constitution and that was only in terms of not doing an executive order on guns, which Kamala Harris was all for. O'Rourke, with Eric Swalwell before him, may have moved the Overton Window allowing gun confiscation in.
Of course O'Rourke's plan would be an absolute disaster for the United States. He insanely said that people would hand in their guns and even owners of AR's say they don't need them. He's obviously lying as I don't know a single gun owner who would turn their firearms in and more than a few that say they would respond to cops going door to door with gunfire. I can't believe that he's so naive that he thinks people would just turn in their guns so it's clear he's lying to supporters about how many people would go along with his insane plan.
Other gun control laws, some of which are much milder and easier to go along with than this one, have seen very little in the way of compliance. The New York Safe act which only required registration of AR's saw around 4% compliance. Investigations into New Jersey's magazine ban, which limited capacity to 10 rounds, found no examples of ANYONE turning in a magazine. Even in New Zealand, which doesn't have anywhere near the gun culture we have, only 10,000 guns have been turned in so far out of millions.
If somehow O'Rourke were to be elected his best case scenario would be a massive amount of non-compliance. My guess is that he might get a few guns turned in but 90 to 95% of gun owners at a minimum would not comply. And that's assuming that the Supreme Court simply doesn't overrule the law in the first place.
The worst case scenario would of course be civil war. If O'Rourke were to start sending people door to door to collect firearms it would result in violence. Many cops would refuse to do it and many state and local governments would not help federal authorities to do so. All it would take is a couple of high profile deaths to lead to retaliation attacks, assuming that the fighting didn't just kick off as soon as O'Rourke was elected.
The good news for gun owners is that O'Rourke has almost no chance of being the nominee for the Democrats, let alone President of the United States. He's on life support in the polls and by all measures he should have dropped out a long time ago. The other candidates aren't much better on gun rights but O'Rourke is out on a limb by himself with the gun confiscation idiocy.
As I reminder though, I do think it's time for gun owners to take action. It's always good to contact your elected officials are remind them you are opposed to gun control. And donations to gun rights groups might be a good idea too. Even with all the problems the NRA has right now, it might be worth it to chip in and there are plenty of other gun rights groups to donate to as well. Though O'Rourke isn't likely to win anything it is important to push back against this crap now before it's too late.
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