Beto O’Rourke Endorses Mandatory Assault Weapon Buyback Confiscations

Beto O’Rourke has endorsed mandatory “buyback” confiscations of millions of Americans’ guns, in a bid to revive his struggling Presidential campaign.

The Democrat announced his support for mandatory seizure of commonly owned semiautomatic rifles on Friday. Americans won’t have the choice to keep firearms such as AR-15s under his proposal, and will be forced to sell them to the government.

O’Rourke said he would fine any American who refuses to give up their rifle. It’s unclear how far he would go to enforce such a punitive gun control measure, that would arbitrarily steal millions of firearms from law-abiding citizens.

The policy proposal is a new position for O’Rourke, who previously only hinted he’d be “open” to the idea of seizing Americans’ guns. Only a handful of progressive Democrats, such as failed Presidential contender and Congressman Eric Swalwell, have gone so far as to call for the government to seize what they define as “assault weapons.”

American citizens own up to 10 million AR-15s alone, and any program intended to seize every so-called assault weapon from civilian hands would have to be all-encompassing in nature. It’s doubtful a national gun confiscation could even be implemented in any widespread fashion, and if it were, it’d be sure to leave peaceful citizens disarmed.

Dangerous criminals who circumvent the current federal background check and prohibited possessor system would be likely to retain the guns they’ve already acquired outside of the lawful system. They’d be free to wreak havoc on disarmed Americans.

Fortunately, it appears O’Rourke’s new policy proposal may be little more than a last-ditch attempt to gain traction through as his struggling Presidential campaign flounders. Recent polls have O’Rourke polling at around 2%, and the handsomely-funded neoliberal corporate Democrat has rejected calls to end his campaign and run for the U.S Senate in Texas.