Former Rep. Beto ORourke (D-Texas) said that guns “will be taken” from people who dont follow his proposed plan to outlaw AR-15s and AK-47s.
ORourke is the Democratic presidential candidate who was asked at the September debate whether hed force Americans to give up their guns and answered, “Hell yes.”
At the Oct. 15 debate, ORourke was asked how hed enforce the so-called mandatory buybacks. Some gun rights experts say it is confiscation because the government never owned the guns in the first place.
“If someone does not turn in an AR-15 or an AK-47, one of these weapons of war, or brings it out in public and brandishes it in an attempt to intimidate, as we saw when we were at Kent State recently, then that weapon will be taken from them,” he said. “If they persist, they will be other consequences from law enforcement.”
ORourke said that his law would involve law enforcement going “door to door,” alleging: “We dont go door to door to do anything in this country to enforce the law.”
“I expect Republicans, Democrats, gun-owners, non-gun-owners alike to respect and follow the law,” he said.
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, was asked about how he referred to mandatory buybacks as confiscation. He asserted ORourke doesnt know how buybacks would work.
“You just made it clear that you dont know how this is actually going to take weapons off the streets,” he said. “If you can develop the plan further, I think we can have a debate about it. But we cant wait.”
“We cant wait for purity tests, we have to get something done,” he added.
“This is not a purity test,” ORourke said, championing ideas like universal background checks.
“Lets decide what we are going to believe in, what we are going to achieve, and lets bring this country together to do that,” ORourke said.
He said lawmakers shouldnt “be limited by the polls, the consultants, and the focus groups” in terms of what bills or executive orders they pass. Polls consistently show minority support for ORourkes plan.
