Beto O’Rourke says AK-47 and AR-15 owners will ‘have to sell them to the government’ if he becomes president
Beto O’Rourke said he would implement a sweeping government buy-back policy for two types of assault rifles, including one commonly used in mass shootings across the US, if he were elected president in 2020.
The Texas Democrat responded to questions on the campaign trail Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, about concerns the government would take assault weapons away from gun owners.
According to a Buzzfeed News reporter, he said: “I want to be really clear that that’s exactly what we are going to do.” The candidate later shared that quote on Twitter, adding: "We need to buy back every single assault weapon."
Anyone who owns an AK-47 or AR-15 will “have to sell them to the government,” he added.
Mr O’Rourke, whose mandatory buyback programme is a part of his comprehensive gun control plan, has also called for a ban on assault-style guns and high capacity magazines, which he has also said would be required to be sold to the US government under his administration.
Mr O’Rourke had made gun control a central focus of his 2020 campaign after suspending it to mourn with the community in his hometown of El Paso, Texas after a gunman stormed a Walmart earlier this month, killing 22 people and injuring 24 others.
The gunman in that tragedy used an AK-47 which he said he purchased overseas.
That shooting occurred just hours before a gunman in Dayton, Ohio unloaded a pistol with 100-round drum magazines near a bar on a popular street for nightlife, killing nine people and injuring 27 more.
The high-capacity magazine allowed the shooter to fire rapidly at his victims, which included his sister.
Mr O’Rourke has also connected the spate of shootings with an apparent rise in violent white supremacy and the leadership of Donald Trump.
“With 40,000 gun violence deaths in this country, not all of them are connected to white nationalism, white supremacy or white terrorism, but ... you do have to connect the hatred, the racism, the president's words and actions with the accessibility of those weapons that afford someone the means to conduct this kind of terror in this country,” he said in an interview with NPR earlier this week.
“If I don't connect these dots, then I am complicit in the next mass murder or the next act of domestic terror,” he added.
Mr O’Rourke’s gun policies are among the most aggressive in the pool of 2020 Democratic candidates.
Kamala Harris has also released a sweeping gun control plan that specifically targets domestic terrorism and white nationalists, while requiring near-universal background checks and banning the import of AR-15s.
Cory Booker’s plan has also been hailed for funding gun violence research and requiring gun owners obtain licenses for their weapons.
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PHOTO:
This handout image taken on Aug. 31, 2019, shows a car with bullet
holes in the window after a gunman opened fire on the I-20 highway in
between Odessa and Midland, Texas. (Ernst Villanueva via AFP/Getty
Images)Cinergy
Entertainment, the entertainment center where the rampage came to an
end, released a statement on Twitter calling the shooting a "senseless
tragedy.""The safety of our team members and guests are our top
priority and we are extremely grateful for the swift response from local
authorities & first responders," the statement read.Our
hearts and prayers go out to the victims and the families of the
senseless tragedy in the Odessa/Midland community. The safety of our
team members and guests are our top priority and we are extremely
grateful for the swift response from local authorities & first
responders.
PHOTO:
A man prays outside of the Medical Center Hospital Emergency room in
Odessa, Texas, Aug. 31, 2019, following a shooting in the area of Odessa
and Midland. (Mark Rogers/Odessa American via AP)"The
state of Texas and the Department of Public Safety are working closely
with local law enforcement to provide resources as needed and deliver
justice for this heinous attack," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a
statement."We will not allow the Lone Star State to be overrun by
hatred and violence. We will unite, as Texans always do, to respond to
this tragedy,” he added. "We offer our unwavering support to the
victims, their families, and all the people of Midland and Odessa."
Emergency
services are at work in Villeurbanne on the outskirts of Lyon,
south-eastern France, after a knife attack (AFP Photo/PHILIPPE DESMAZES)One of the men had been arrested by police but the second was on the run. The attack took place close to a metro station.An AFP journalist at the scene witnessed a body being taken away in an ambulance and traces of blood on the ground.The national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office had been informed but had not taken charge of the case at this stage.Last May, a parcel bomb in front of a baker's shop in central Lyon left 14 people slightly injured.
French police and soldiers sealed off the area after the attack (AFP Photo/PHILIPPE DESMAZES)The
perpetrator, a young radicalised Algerian, who was arrested three days
later, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, according to his
confession.Lyon, France's third city, until then had remained
untouched by the wave of jihadist attacks that has killed 251 people in
France since 2015.
