Democrat Texas Gubernatorial Flips on Gun Rights: Beto Wants Texans to Keep Guns Now

Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke says he now has no interest in taking guns from Texans.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke no longer wants to take guns, according to Fox News.
  • The former Senate and presidential candidate has made a 180 degree turn from his earlier assertion that “assault weapons” had no business in the hands of civilians.
  • O’Rourke made national headlines when he said in 2019 while running for president that “h*** yes” he would take away AR-15s from citizens if elected president.
  • The year before, however, the last time he was running on a Texas state-wide stage, he said that “We support the Second Amendment, if you own a gun keep that gun,” the former representative said at the time according to Texas Scorecard.
WHAT BETO SAID:
  • “I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone,” O’Rourke said to reporters in Tyler, Texas. “What I want to make sure that we do is defend the Second Amendment. I want to make sure that we protect our fellow Texans far better than we’re doing right now.”
  • The most recent Tyler comments were in stark juxtaposition to his comments from a few months earlier, which was complete support for a buyback program for “assault weapons.”
  • “Most of us understand the responsibility that comes with owning a firearm, and we will vigorously protect that Second Amendment right and also protect the lives of those around us,” he told The Texas Tribune at the time, calling them weapons designed for the battlefield.
  • “But I think most of us also understand that we should not have military-style weapons used against our fellow Texans. We have four of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history right here in Texas that took place over the last five years.”
BACKGROUND:
  • The Texas gubernatorial hopeful has raised eyebrows due to some of the funding for his campaigns, such as during his 2017-2018 senatorial candidacy for which Google INC was one of his top contributors, giving him $235,070, according to Open Secrets.
  • More than half of the contributions to his Senate campaign, totaling more than $43 million, were from large dollar contributor, more than 45% of O’Rourke’s funding comming from out of state, namely California, Washington, Colorado, and New York.

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