Beto O'Rourke AR-15 Assault Weapons Ban
courtesy AP

News flash: Texans love their guns. By one estimate, there are about 22 million privately owned firearms here in the Lone Star State. So you’d think that any candidate running for office here would at least pay lip service to that fact, professing — no matter how disingenuously — to respect the Second Amendment and the tradition of civilian firearms ownership.

So it’s probably a good indicator of the leftward-lurch the Democrats have made in the past couple of years that the party’s candidate nominated to challenge a sitting Texas US senator feels he can — or has to — declare that civilians shouldn’t be permitted to buy AR-15 rifles.

El Paso Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, is proud of his campaign’s claim that he shuns political action committee (PAC) money. He criticized Senator (Ted) Cruz for taking $300,000 from the National Rifle Association and boasted that his campaign has taken $0 from the NRA. He told a story about a woman at a town hall who asked him if he could stand up to the NRA. O’Rourke explained that he does not hire consultants, does not talk to pollsters, and does not consult focus groups.

Criticizing Republicans for taking NRA contributions is hardly new. You can hear Dems and the media spouting some version of that on any day that ends in a ‘y’.  Declaring for all of Texas to hear, however, that America’s favorite rifle should be banned is more worthy of note.

“There is no reason an AR-15, a weapon of war designed for the sole purpose of taking lives as effectively and as efficiently and [in] as great a number as possible should be sold to civilians to be used in our schools, in our churches, in our concerts, in public life in this country,” O’Rourke said. “I have no idea how that polls, and I could give a shit what the NRA thinks about it because it’s the right thing to do.”

(The relevant part starts at the 26:30 mark.)

We have a pretty good idea exactly how that will poll here.

Who knows? Maybe O’Rourke just got carried away, pontificating before a receptive, gun control-friendly SXSW audience and dropped a dreaded Kinsley gaffe. Whatever. Conventional wisdom, now that the video is out, is that Beto has committed public political seppuku right there on the SXSW stage.

There’s still a long time until the election. And while anything can still happen, Lone Star Republicans seem plenty energized. It might do for a few of Beto’s fellow Dems to remind him that Texas is much more than just Austin.

If he’s somehow forgotten that, he’s probably going to find out the hard way in November.

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58 COMMENTS

  1. News flash: Only 52% of Texans voted for Trump. If this O’Rourke fellow said he’d propose a bill to abolish Daylight Savings, I’d be scared. (Kinda kidding.)

    Go Cruz.

      • Nope, I didn’t forget. I just believe that complacency kills. And besides, the whole premise of the post was a joke.

    • Let’s see. This is the platform the social welfare communist party wants to run on:

      RAISE TAXES
      BAN GUNS
      OPEN BORDERS
      FREE SHIT FOR ILLEGALS

      Really? That might work in Calilpornia or New Yawk. Not here.

      • I forgot to ask. The demanding mommies are supposed to hold a “rally” at the courthouse square in Llano on 3/24 @ noon. Anyone care to join me? This is one time I would open carry and I just got a new “Come and Take it” flag with an AR on it. Any takers?

      • I hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as an impregnable Conservative stronghold.

        • Ya, but there’s millions of them with just enough solid cover for the backblast of a claymore.

    • You’re not wrong.

      I’d have even considered voting for Hillary if she had promised to abolish Daylight Savings nationwide.

    • This is an off year election. Comparisons to presidential year elections are of limited value because each party’s supporters have different participation levels in the general election in off years. Cruz last won in 2012 with 56%. Dems typically don’t get more than 40% to 45% in statewide races here

  2. Before this, his internal polling must have been crap…and the DNC is cutting off the spigot as well. So, to keep himself viable as a ‘woke’ Democrat on the national level, he went ahead and pulled the plug in Texas, in the footsteps of ‘Abortion Barbie’. I guess he’s thinking a cabinet position in the Kamala Harris administration is in the offing.

    • Yeah, I get serious Wendy Davis astro-turf vibes from the guy (he’s also so slippery & over-polished sounding he makes Obama in lecturer-mode seem like a dragster tire). Like her, I’m sure his strategy is to embarrass himself loudly in public in the hopes of a political gig. People *not* from Texas seem way more excited about him than I can imagine people *in* Texas are, same as with Wendy.

      What’s Wendy up to these days? She ride that blue wave all the way back into the trailer park?

  3. I would FULLY support a law stating that ANYONE who can’t achieve at least a 120 I.Q. by the age of 18 be euthanised. 99% of our problems would be solved. Then, maybe…just maybe we could get some meaningful shit done. At the least we wouldn’t have to put up with this kind of idiocy. Just sayin.

      • Not a chance. That comment is pretty solid proof of his shortcoming. Looks like that plan would eliminate about 90% of the population, and probably a disproportionate percentage of those who know how to build and fix things. Aside from that the depletion in total population would leave us wide open to foreign invasion. Of course, those only become problems after you get past the whole moral problem with genocide in general. But other than those little glitches, it sounds like a great plan.

        • Who are you to say I wouldn’t make the cut? Aside from that, its not genocide its more like selective upbreeding. Can we not agree that there are some Tide Pod eating genetics out in the world that we could do better without? Genocide is usually based on race or religion, not intelligence.
          Lastly, to take my original comment as anything other than a tounge-in-cheek swipe at the stupidity of our society would solidly put you in the Tide pod Genetics catagory. Some of you are some seriously SIMPLE bastards.

        • @Ed Should we ban all ladies who aren’t beautiful and all men who aren’t handsome from marrying?

          Why don’t we just cut to the chase and euthanize anyone who doesn’t agree with what you think? How is that American or Conservative or ethical in the slightest?

        • I owe Flinch a serious apology. Did before I read this, but you reminded me. Now, to your point…

          Selective upbreeding. I seem to recall something about that being tried in the early 1940’s…didn’t go well. Joke or not, comments like that give aid and comfort to those who paint us as unstable lunatics. They can and will be used against us in the court of public opinion. I’m all in for vigorous defense of Second Amendment rights, but asshattery is another matter.

        • @ OmnivorousBeorn
          What part of “…to take my original comment as anything other than a tounge-in-cheek swipe at the stupidity of our society would solidly put you in the Tide pod Genetics catagory…” did you NOT understand?? Holy shit, some of you are some SENSITIVE little skirt-tuggers! Reading comprehension is a thing, give it a try sometime. Another -120 shower winner,lmao.
          Hold on, let me get you a tissue for your feelings.

        • @ TStew, READING COMPREHENSION, try it….holy fuck. God damn…I can’t believe what a bunch of retards you all are…it’s like banging on the glass at the monkey house at the zoo!

        • @Ed,

          I apologize. I only skimmed your second comment.

          “. . . some of you are some SENSITIVE little skirt-tuggers!”

          Being sensitive to totalitarian principles being adopted by fellow right-wingers isn’t all bad, although you were caught at the wrong end of it.

          Maybe make the joke clear in the first post, like I’ve seen a lot of other commenters do. Also, burying it in the middle of the response post isn’t helpful.

          “Another -120 shower winner,lmao. Hold on, let me get you a tissue for your feelings.”

          Whatever man. I don’t mind be called dumb. I just want to find the truth.

        • @Ed – do you have a point to make and, if so, can you make it like an adult? You know, like the other intelligent people around these parts?

    • You do realize that IQ is…

      1. Dynamic.
      2. Based on the population average.

      Every 15 points of IQ above 100 is 1 standard deviation.

      • Timothy McVeigh will make the cut. What do you want to bet that both of the Clintons will too. Smart does not equal sane.

      • I don’t think he does realize that

        I also don’t think he realizes that he is unlikely to be in that range

      • This. Which means that the population decline would be exponential, with each succeeding generation being cut to less than 30% of the previous one.

  4. The ads write themselves. Juxtapose Feinstein wanting to ban ARs with O’Rourke taking the same position. Cruz ought to be able to run away with this one. One can imagine the debate interchange, “my opponent would vote for Charles Schumer of New York to be the majority leader in the Senate. Charles Schumer.”

  5. “Beto” isn’t Latino but he calls himself by a Spanish nickname he made up himself. The guy really has mental problems.

  8. Beto, is a symptom of a much bigger problem nationwide. Gun controllers are trying to “mainstream” and they are using the “kids” as a vehicle to do it. With a supine press lavishing praise and accolades on them and with Blommies billions, its working. They have evolved and adapted and we need to do the same.
    But, its still a “not one inch” game. Not one step backwards, ever. Fight and fight hard but lets fight smart too. The water is getting warm and they keep turning the heat up.

    I wonder, do you think they know what’s coming if they are successful?

  10. Even Wendy Davis knew enough to include “I support the Second Amendment” among her constant lies…

  11. “O’Rourke explained that he does not hire consultants, does not talk to pollsters, and does not consult focus groups.”

    And why would he, when any given preschooler could easily point out what a magnificent retard he is?

  12. I hope he likes his time in opposition.

    It is said “there is no fool like an old fool” but the Dems keep proving there are a lot of young fools willing to be assimilated into the collective.

  19. “boasted that his campaign has taken $0 from the NRA”

    Was he OFFERED any $ from the NRA? I bet not. I’ve not taken any money from Planned Parenthood. See, I can play that game too.

    But, I think that is a good platform to run on. You should also loudly announce you favor not deporting illegal immigrant felons, and support rolling back the tax cuts. You’d have a solid platform for winning in TX (shhhh, don’t tell him this is sarcasm).

  20. “Nobody’s coming for your guns.”

    President Obama must think this Beto-box there is a nobody, even though he’s a Democrat.

  21. I suggest you folks in Texas ask this candidate, if he will support sending back all those select fire M16s that the Obama administration sent to the Lone Star state police departments???
    Has he supported the texas police getting full auto weapons in the past???

    Check out the 1033 Program. Or the Open The Books web site, Militarization of the Police.

  22. El paso? So this little pissant doesn’t actually represent Texans, he represents Mexicans that put him into office!

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