For the past couple of weeks, Americans have heard riveting testimony supporting the argument that a gun – and in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, an AR-15 – can help save lives and property.
But in Texas, it does not matter to a liberal and failed former presidential candidate who is basing his campaign for governor on gun confiscation.
Last time the American public saw Beto O’Rourke, he stood on the debate stage of the Democratic presidential primaries, declaring, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
And that remains his mantra as he goes after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s job.
O’Rourke, according to an interview he granted the left-wing Texas Tribune, offers the usual liberal platitudes. He faults Abbott for trying to protect the life of the unborn, and essentially blames him for the winter storm that temporarily shut down the state’s electric grid.
But he keeps his opposition to legally owned guns at the forefront of his bid – even though he could not harness the emotion of his anti-gun crusade following the mass shooting that killed 23 people in El Paso in 2019 to help his presidential bid.
“I think most Texans can agree — maybe all Texans can agree — that we should not see our friends, our family members, our neighbors, shot up with weapons that were originally designed for use on a battlefield,” O’Rourke told the Tribune.
Cam Edwards, a prominent pro-Second Amendment columnist noted in response, “I think most Texans will end up agreeing that Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke shouldn’t be the next governor of the state of Texas, and one of the key factors will be his continued and outspoken desire to criminalize the right to keep and bear arms.”
“Does anyone really believe that, even if it were constitutional to ban the possession of the most commonly-sold rifle in the country today, that it would put an end to mass murderers?”
Edwards added, “The FBI’s crime statistics show that year after year more Americans are murdered by someone using their fists or feet than by a rifle of any kind, but O’Rourke is insistent that turning hundreds of thousands of legal Texas gun owners into felons for simply keeping their gun is not only a public safety imperative, but a winning political issue. In Texas.”
“Color me (and voters) skeptical.”
The Tribune noted O’Rourke already trails Abbott by nine percentage points, even as Abbott’s popularity has slipped recently.
Still, Edwards advised Texans concerned about their Second Amendment rights to not become complacent.
“O’Rourke came close enough to beating [GOP Sen.] Ted Cruz in 2018, and Abbott’s popularity has declined enough that Democrats will likely focus a lot of time and energy on boosting Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke’s chances next year,” Edwards wrote.
“Gun owners need to get engaged, become involved, and most of all VOTE next November to ensure that O’Rourke’s dreams of enacting gun confiscation don’t come to fruition.”
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