In an interview at SXSW last month, US Senate hopeful Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke kicked off his campaign by doing something most Texas Democrats have been loath to do: line out his opposition to the Second Amendment and advocate that Texans should be prohibited from purchasing the most popular firearm in the United States.
“There is no reason an AR-15, a weapon of war designed for the sole purpose of taking lives as effectively and as efficiently and [in] as great a number as possible should be sold to civilians to be used in our schools, in our churches, in our concerts, in public life in this country,” said O’Rourke.
“I have no idea how that polls, and I could give a s*** what the NRA thinks about it because it’s the right thing to do,” he added.
Though O’Rourke’s campaign has publicly eschewed polling and consultants, someone must have told him how much of a loser his position is with Texas voters. And recently he’s begun obfuscating his position on the issue.
“We support the Second Amendment, if you own a gun keep that gun. No one wants to take it away from you, at least I don’t,” said O’Rourke.
Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it?
It should.
“If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” said President Barack Obama of his proposed Obamacare law. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
But shortly after the law was passed, Americans across the country would discover from their insurance carriers and employers that neither statement was true. They couldn’t keep their plan—they’d have to move to a more expensive one, and they couldn’t keep their doctor who was now “out of network.”
Indeed the lies were so egregious even the left-leaning Politifact termed them the “Lies of the Year” in 2013.
O’Rourke words ring equally hollow on their own, but even more hollow next to the fact that he’s signed on as a cosponsor to HR 5087, the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2018” along with 174 other Democrats.
No Republican has signed onto the bill which would install draconian prohibitions on the sale, production, transfer, and importation of the following items:
- Semi-automatic rifles and pistols with a military-style feature that can accept a detachable magazine
- All Semi-automatic rifles with a fixed magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds
- Semi-automatic shotguns with a military-style feature
- Any ammunition feeding device that can hold more than 10 rounds
- 205 specifically-named and listed firearms
The language of the bill classifies the following as “military-style features”: pistol grip; forward grip; detachable magazine; folding, telescoping, or detachable stock; grenade launcher or rocket launcher; barrel shroud; and threaded barrel.
In other words, even if Texans take O’Rourke at his word that if they own a gun they can keep that gun, he’s on the record supporting legislation prohibiting them from buying another magazine, giving one of their guns to a family member as a Christmas gift, or obtaining replacement parts for the ones that wear out on their current weapons.
A ban on “sale, production, transfer, and importation” is, in practical terms, confiscation and prohibition, but O’Rourke’s “if you like your AR-15, you can keep your AR-15” won’t earn the “Lie of the Year” distinction in 2018, 2019, or 2020.
That won’t be because it isn’t worthy of the distinction, but rather because O’Rourke will fail to unseat US Sen. Ted Cruz. That loss, coupled other Democrat electoral failures around the country, will ensure that the legislation he’s advocating for doesn’t pass.
“Beto wants those open bordersand he wants to take our guns, not a chance on Earth he’ll get a vote from millions of Texans. If you’re gonna run in Texas, you can’t be a liberal man.”
No Texas Democrat has won a statewide election since 1994, and Texas voters will maintain that streak by re-electing Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott, and the entire statewide Republican ticket this November.
