During Thursday night’s democratic debate, presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke doubled down on his pledge to implement mandatory buybacks for semi-automatic rifles, saying “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”, Huffington Post reported.
O’Rourke has made gun violence a central issue in his campaign following the El Paso shooting in his home state of Texas.
A total of 22 people were killed during the August 3 massacre at a local Walmart, giving rise to the demand for better gun control in America.
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Just a few weeks later, seven more people were killed in west Texas after a shooter opened fire in Midland and Odessa following a highway patrol stop.
O’Rourke’s campaign has put the spotlight on gun violence and gun control after the devastating Texas-based shootings.
Last week, the former congressman appeared at the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention and called for a mandatory gun buyback program, which see federal authorities force gun owners to sell specific firearms to the government, as well as a national firearms registry and red flag laws.
He promised to stop the sale of “weapons of war” and said any American looking to own a firearm will have to obtain a federal license first.
At Thursday night’s debate, O’Rourke reiterated his promise of better control and safety measures.
Moderator David Muir asked the candidate if he planned on taking away people’s guns, to which O’Rourke responded, “Hell yes, we’re going to take away your AR-15, your AK-47.”
He continued, “We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.”
His response was met with cheers and a round of applause from the audience in what became one of the most stirring moments from the debate.
O’Rourke has since tweeted the same statement on his official Twitter account, and has also reportedly begun selling T-shirts featuring the quote for $30 on his merchandise website.
Although his bold statement evoked cheers from the audience, not everyone was pleased with O’Rourke’s promise.
Briscoe Cain, a Republican lawmaker also from Texas, tweeted at O’Rourke in response to his debate claim, saying, “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis.”
Within just a few hours, the tweet was removed from Twitter for violating its terms of service, but O’Rourke manged to take a screenshot of the message and share it to his own Twitter account, writing: “This is a death threat, Representative. Clearly, you shouldn’t own an AR-15 — and neither should anyone else.”
Cain fired back with his own tweet where he called O’Rourke a “child”.
Twitter users were in disbelief over the lawmaker’s threatening tweet at O’Rourke.
“This is a threat,” one user wrote in response to Cain’s original tweet. “I thought RESPONSIBLE gun owners did not make threats.”
Another added, “Threatening gun violence because you’re afraid of people taking away your guns seems like a pretty good reason to take away your guns.”
h/t: Huffington Post
