While gun rights activists are burning up social media in the aftermath of Democrat presidential candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke’s on-stage admission that his gun control plan revolved around confiscation of modern sporting rifles, the more alarming part of that dramatic moment for Second Amendment advocates may have been the cheering audience.
That was even noted by Seattle morning drive time talk host John Carlson at KVI-AM. He told the listening audience the crowd reaction was telling about the mindset gun owners are facing, heading into 2020. ABC News posted a video of the remarks on YouTube.
O’Rourke’s bold remark—he’s trailing in the race—is being singled out as proof that Democrats really do plan to take people’s guns despite years of sarcastic assurances by top Democrats including former President Barack Obama that “Nobody is going to take your guns.” Conservative personality Tomi Lahren of “Fox Nation,” appearing early Friday on “Fox and Friends” at Fox News, declared, “Finally they’re being transparent. We have been saying for years that they want to take our guns and it was always just, ‘Oh you stupid hillbillies, we don’t want to take your guns.’ And now they’re coming out and saying it proudly.”
On Facebook, firearms industry veteran Val Forgett has ignited a discussion with this observation:
“For years we, legal, responsible gun owners, have tolerated the accusations and the vitriol directed at us,” Forgett wrote, “because we are polite, we are law abiding and we believe in ALL the amendments, including the 1st, no matter how ill-informed and incorrect our accusers are about firearms, how they operate, and how they are sold.
“I purchased and own my guns legally,” he added. “I have committed no crimes; I have a constitutional right to own them. The Government is not taking them, period. I will not submit. We will not submit.”
After Sen. Elizabeth Warren alleged that the Clinton “assault weapons” ban was not renewed in 2013 because of a 60-vote requirement in the Senate, the National Review took her to task, saying this was a false claim.
Warren asserted, “That ban and other gun-control measures haven’t passed because of ‘corruption, pure and simple.’ We have a Congress that is beholden to the gun industry. And unless we’re willing to address that head-on and roll back the filibuster, we’re not going to get anything done on guns. I was in the United States Senate when 54 senators said let’s do background checks, let’s get rid of assault weapons, and with 54 senators, it failed because of the filibuster.”
But the National Review explained, “From 2004 to 2012, Democrats intentionally retreated on gun control because they believed it was necessary to win elections. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Democrats still do not have the votes to pass the Assault Weapons Ban in the House of Representatives, where Democrats currently hold 235 seats.”
Several days before the Democrat debate, the New York Times analyzed where the candidates stand on gun control, and how their plans differ from one another.
None of them provide any solution, however, for incidents like that in Lakewood, Washington earlier in the week. Four teens—none of whom are legally old enough to own handguns—were riding in a car when one of the pistols in their possession discharged. The bullet killed an 18-year-old riding in the front seat. Two of the teens are now in custody, facing charges in connection to the case. Lakewood is a Tacoma suburb.
The dead teen was identified as Jullien Alan Scott Suzuki, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.
None of the gun control schemes offered by Democrats—including the “compensated confiscation” of semi-auto modern sporting rifles—would have prevented the Lakewood shooting.
Where did those teens get those handguns? That hasn’t been established because two of the teens reportedly grabbed three handguns from the car and fled on foot.
What O’Rourke and other Democrats evidently fail to understand is that bad guys do not obey gun control laws. As noted earlier in the week by Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, “Democrats don’t get it” about gun control.
“So far,” Gottlieb observed, “all Democrats have accomplished with their gun prohibition agenda is increase gun sales by 15 percent over the last month. This happens every time they introduce or pass new restrictions. They just don’t get it.”
“Their attack on Second Amendment rights is really going to increase gun owner voter turnout in the 2020 elections,” he predicted. “The more extreme anti-gunners get with their bans and restrictions, the more they telegraph that they have no respect for our Constitutional Second Amendment rights.”
That’s a message not lost on gun owners one day after the debate and O’Rourke’s surprising candor. His comments are turning typically lethargic gun owners into activists.
