Politics

Beto O’Rourke Continues To Double Down On Confiscating Guns

Noah Adamitis Associate Editor
Font Size:

Beto O’Rourke appeared Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd and continued to push for a so-called assault weapons buy-back program, insisting that the “instruments of terror” need to be taken off of the streets.

The former Democratic Texas congressman explained his reasoning for advocating for both an assault weapons ban and a buy-back program saying, “I could no longer accept that that would be enough because there’s still more than 10 million assault weapons, weapons of war out on the street. And if we agree that they’re dangerous to sell and we should stop selling them, then we also have to agree that these are instruments of terror that are still out there and have to be brought back home or they are going to be used against us.”

Todd also asked about Beto’s apparent “change of heart” on guns, “Explain how — your change of heart. To be a bit harsh here, what you just said about sort of the weakness of Washington, you used to be one of those members of Congress who used to advocate this very careful wording on guns. Where did you go wrong?”

Beto pushed back on the question saying that he “rejected” it and went on to explain that when he was campaigning for the senate in Texas, he consistently pushed an assault weapons ban in every county that he visited. (Related: ‘Hell Yes’ I’m Going To Take Americans’ Guns)

Banning the sale and distribution of assault weapons, as well as implementing an assault weapons buy-back program is a key part of O’Rourke’s policy platform.

During the September 12 Democratic debate he stated, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore.”