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Two-time election loser and Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke has decided that people should not be able to own AR-15s. Maybe he’ll commit to this stance for more than two years.
O’Rourke has determined that people who own AR-15s or semi-automatic rifles like them shouldn’t “be able to keep them.” O’Rourke likely couldn’t explain what a semi-automatic weapon is or why he wants to confiscate nearly 20 million rifles from law-abiding citizens when rifles are used in a small percentage of homicides in a given year. Democrats think “assault rifles” look scary, and that is good enough for them.
Because Democrats are now demanding gun confiscation, O’Rourke now supports gun confiscation (again). But when he began his statewide political career in 2018, trying to convince Texas voters that he was a centrist Democrat, he said, “If you have an AR-15, keep it.” O’Rourke declared that he didn’t want to take anyone’s guns from them.
Then, he lost to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and was somehow convinced that people wanted him to be president. Trying to win over Democratic primary voters, O’Rourke completely reversed course from his previous comments. During a debate in 2019, he boldly declared, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” He attacked former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg for not supporting gun confiscation, and he also said that he would send police to the homes of gun owners who did not comply.
Then, he lost that race, too, and he decided to return to running statewide in Texas. He challenged Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and returned to pretending he was a centrist Democrat. Just a few months ago, O’Rourke said about guns that he was “not interested in taking anything from anyone” and that all he wanted to do is “defend the Second Amendment.”
Now, because Democratic fervor demands that politicians support their extreme, anti-Second Amendment positions, O’Rourke has pathetically flipped his position for the third time. It won’t make a difference in his chances, given that his faux moderation wasn’t going to save his doomed campaign. But it does set him up for his next campaign or career move, because he can’t stay out of the spotlight for long.
Most Democratic politicians are not worth listening to on gun control because they know nothing about guns, and their “solutions” have nothing to do with the shootings with which they shamelessly associate those guns. O’Rourke is far worse, because he views these tragedies not just as a chance to push unrelated gun control but as an opportunity to promote his political career. He is a weather vane with no principles or beliefs other than that people should give him political power. Given that voters are about to reject him for the third time, you would think he would come up with a new strategy.
