Beto O’Rourke has become the most vocal proponent in the Democratic presidential field of strict gun control laws and confiscating military-style rifles, a stance that has reenergized his flagging campaign. But the former Texas congressman’s position is a direct reversal of the view he held before he launched his presidential bid.

“If you have an AR-15, keep it. I don’t want to take anyone’s guns away from them,” O’Rourke said in an August 2018 Austin Chronicle profile, during his unsuccessful Senate bid challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.