Politics

Beto O’Rourke: Americans Who Don’t Turn In Their Guns Will Face ‘Consequences’

CNN

Justin Caruso Contributor
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Democratic 2020 hopeful Beto O’Rourke said that Americans who don’t turn in their guns will face “consequences” during the CNN-New York Times debate Tuesday.

“Congressman O’Rourke, in the last debate you said, ‘Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,’ but when you were asked how you would enforce a mandatory buyback, you said police wouldn’t be going door to door. So, how exactly are you going to force people to give up their weapons? You don’t even know who has those weapons.” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked.

“Look, we’re going to make sure that the priority is saving the lives of our fellow Americans,” O’Rourke said.

The Texas politician also said, “I expect my fellow Americans to follow the law, the same way that we enforce any provision, any law, that we have right now. We don’t go door to door to do anything in this country to enforce the law. I expect Republicans, Democrats, gun owners and non-gun owners alike to respect and follow the law.”

Cooper shot back, “Congressman, just to follow up, your expectations aside, your website says you will fine people who don’t give up their weapons. That doesn’t take those weapons off the street. So to be clear, exactly how are you going to take away weapons from people who do not want to give them up and you don’t know where they are?”

“If someone does not turn in an AR-15 or AK-47, one of these weapons or war, or brings it out in public and brandishes it in an attempt to intimidate, as we saw when we were at Kent State recently, then that weapon will be taken from them,” he said.

“If they persist, there will be other consequences from law enforcement. But the expectation is that Americans will follow the law. I believe in this country, I believe in my fellow Americans. I believe that they will do the right thing.”

O’Rourke has used gun control policies to re-energize his campaign, openly endorsing the idea of mandatory gun confiscation for AR-15s and AK-47s. (RELATED: Beto O’Rourke Widely Criticized Over His Gun Confiscation Answer During Reddit Q&A)

As Cooper pointed out, the former congressman has said that police won’t go door to door to enforce his gun confiscation.

At the last debate O’Rourke said, “hell yes” when he was asked about taking Americans’ guns.