By: Teresa Mull

Beto O’Rourke, a 2020 presidential candidate, is doubling down on his plan to confiscate one of the most popular firearms in America.

Daily Mail reports:

During an MSNBC interview Friday, the former Texas congressman said that owning ‘guns to hunt or for self-defense makes a lot of sense to us here in Texas,’ but that a ‘weapon of war’ is unnecessary.

He added that ‘even from those Texans who own AR-15s, they’ve told me this themselves ― "I don’t need this. I don’t need it to hunt, I don’t need it to protect myself. It was fun to use. I like taking it out to the range, but if giving this back, or cutting it to pieces, or selling it to the government helps to keep us safer, then by all means, let’s do it."’

As a reminder, O’Rourke said during the last Democratic debate:

“The high-impact, high velocity round, when it hits your body shreds everything insider your body because it was designed to do that, so that you would bleed to death on the battlefield. When we see that being used against children, and in Odessa, I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an AR-15 and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that AR-15 in Odessa, there weren’t enough ambulances to get to them in time.

“… Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore.”

“O’Rourke released an ambitious gun control plan last month that would create a national gun registry, and ban assault-style rifles, bump-stocks, silencers, and magazines that hold more than ten rounds,” National Review reports.

AR-15s are among the most popular guns in America. They are not any deadlier than a typical handgun, and they are certainly not “weapons of war.”

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].