In a Friday morning interview, Beto O’Rourke doubled down on his desire to ban semi-automatic rifles in America.
Speaking of his proposed change of law, O’Rourke rejected the notion that Americans could decide not to give up their guns. “It’s not voluntary. … It is mandatory,” O’Rourke said of his proposal. “It will be the law. You will be required to comply with the law.”
The 2020 Democrat said that he did not believe the law would mean that federal agents would be coming to people’s homes to confiscate their rifles because he expected Americans to follow the law if it came to pass.
“As with many of our laws, we don’t go door to door searching people’s homes to see if they are, in fact, breaking the law,” he said. “We expect people to comply with the law.”
He cited recent conversations with gun owners that led him to believe that those who would be unwilling to hand over their rifles were the “far outlier.” “Most Americans are going to comply with the law,” he said.
“I’m going to work with … law enforcement to make sure that we implement this in the most effective way possible,” O’Rourke said when asked how he would deal with people who did not willingly surrender their firearms.
The type of ban and enforcement envisioned by O’Rourke may not be possible without changes to the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The House of Representatives passed a series of bills earlier this year that address background checks, red flag laws, and gun-free zones. They currently await a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate.
