Beto Doubles Down on Gun Confiscation: 'It’s Not Voluntary, it’s Mandatory'
2020 hopeful reiterates his promise following backlash
© press
2020 hopeful Beto O'Rourke doubled down on his promise to ban every semi-automatic rifle in America despite a backlash.
O'Rourke rejected the idea that the gun confiscation would involve Americans voluntarily handing over their legally purchased firearms.
"It's not voluntary. It's mandatory." O'Rourke said.
But O'Rourke avoided answering the question regarding how far he would go on enforcing such a law.
He also avoided questions on whether federal agents would come to people's homes to confiscate their firearms.
© press
"I'm going to work with ... law enforcement to make sure that we implement this in the most effective way possible," O'Rourke said.
"It is mandatory. It will be the law. You will be required to comply with the law," O'Rourke restated.
"As with many of our laws, we don't go door to door searching people's homes to see if they are, in fact, breaking the law. We expect people to comply with the law."
When the former Texas congressman was asked how he would confiscate people's legally purchased rifles, he said he intended to change the law.
"We are going to change the law so it will no longer be legal to hold one these," he said.
© press
As NewsThud reported, when the 2020 Democratic hopeful was asked whether he would confiscate Americans' guns during the ABC News Democratic debate Thursday, and he answered, “hell yes.”
“Some of the stage have suggested a voluntary buy-back for guns in this country. You have said, ‘Americans who own AR-15s and AK-47s will have to sell them to the government, all of them.’ You know that critics call this confiscation. Are you proposing taking away their guns and how would this work?” ABC’s David Muir asked.
“I am, if it’s a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield. If the high impact, high velocity round, when it hits your body, shreds everything inside of your body because it was designed to do that so you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers,” O’Rourke continued.
Also during the debate, O’Rourke claimed that President Donald Trump was responsible for the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas last month.
Beto claimed, without evidence, that the horrific attack that killed 22 people and injured 24 others shows “just how dangerous Donald Trump is.”
The Democratic 2020 candidate went so far as to state that the El Paso shooter was “inspired to kill” by President Trump:
“On August 3rd, in El Paso, Texas, two things became crystal clear for me, and I think produced a turning point for this country," Beto said.
