A gun store in Arizona sold out of AR-15s within four hours of running a “Beto Special” deal poking fun at the Democratic presidential candidate who promised to ban AR-15s if elected.
Alpha Dog Firearms announced it would be selling AR-15s for $349.99 on Friday, hours after Beto O’Rourke pledged to ban the weapons at the ABC News debate on Thursday night. O’Rourke was adamant that his buyback program would be mandatory, not voluntary, going on to assure the debate moderators that “hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.” (RELATED: Beto: ‘Going Door to door’ To Confiscate Guns is ‘Not Something We Would Do)
“Our $349.99 AR deal sold out in less than 4 hours,” the store wrote on Facebook. “We’re trying to process the orders and work on getting more special deals for our good friend gun grabber Beto.”
O’Rourke has centered his presidential campaign on gun control, saying at the debate that President Donald Trump “directed” and “inspired” the August Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas. (RELATED: Beto Doubles Down On Confiscating Guns)
HOUSTON, TEXAS – SEPTEMBER 12: Democratic presidential candidate former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke speaks during the Democratic Presidential Debate at Texas Southern University’s Health and PE Center on September 12, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“I refuse to even acknowledge the politics or the polling, or the fear, or the NRA that has purchased the complicity and the silence of members of Congress, and its weak response to a real tragedy in America,” O’Rourke told Chuck Todd on CNN. “40,000 gun deaths a year, we’ve got to do something about it, and I’m proposing that we do something about it.”
Of those roughly 40,000 gun deaths per year, less than 400 are committed with AR-15-style weapons, a fraction of the annual deaths caused by knives or sharp objects.
