Home Gun Control Beto’s Beta Ideas on National Gun Confiscation

Beto’s Beta Ideas on National Gun Confiscation

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robert francis beto o'rourke
Democratic presidential candidate former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
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By Elizabeth McGuigan

Presidential contender Robert “Beto” O’Rourke is second-guessing his idea on the “mandatory” part of his publicized plan to confiscate more than 16 million lawfully owned modern sporting rifles.

O’Rourke’s latest idea might be familiar to movie buffs. If you build it, they will come. Or in this case, if you pass the laws, they will comply.

“I don’t see the law enforcement going door to door,” said the former Texas congressman. “I see Americans complying with the law. I see us working with gun owners, non-gun owners, local, county, state, federal law enforcement to come up with the best possible solution.”

Here are the problems with that theory. There are already laws that criminals don’t follow. Banning a constitutional right isn’t going to make them suddenly law-abiding. While we wish it were true, O’Rourke can’t just wave a hand, sign a law and suddenly evil vanishes.

It’s not just pessimistic thinking. Criminals prove this out. First, murder is illegal. Felons, with few exceptions, are barred by law from owning firearms. Lying on background check forms is a felony. Lying to buy a gun for someone who is prohibited is a crime. Transferring a firearm to someone who’s prohibited is against the law. Manufacturing and then selling a home-build firearm to anyone is a crime.

What? Me Worry?

national gun control confiscation
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

O’Rourke’s logic would be maddening if it weren’t so comical. O’Rourke explained there’d be no need for an actual task force knocking door-to-door because if he could just have the law, people would follow it.

In his own words, “How do you — how do we enforce any law? There’s a significant reliance on people complying with the law.”

Daughter of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, Meghan McCain, warned about any such move. It would trigger widespread violence, making criminals out of those who treasure their Second Amendment rights.

That is, of course, if such a law ever passed constitutional muster. That’s on top of the logistical nightmare of thinking about confiscating the more than 16 million modern sporting rifles already in lawful private possession today.

I can’t imagine putting law enforcement officers in the position of having to kick down the front door of their fellow law-abiding Americans to confiscate legally purchased firearms that have never been used in a crime. I suspect many police officers, who swore an oath to defend the constitution, would refuse to follow orders from anti-gun politicians to violate the constitutional rights of their neighbors.

“The AR-15 is by far the most popular gun in America. … I was just in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, if you’re talking about going and taking people’s guns away from them, there’s going to be a lot of violence,” McCain said on the daytime talk show, The View.

The Lady’s Right

She’s got a point. What O’Rourke and the many others who talk about a straight-out gun confiscation with milquetoast phrases like “mandatory buyback” isn’t without precedent.

That’s right. It’s been done here in America with deadly results. The standing government in America then wore a crown and sent men in uniforms, with guns, to the small Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. Americans revolted. The result was a new nation, with God-given rights, including the right to keep and bear arms.

 

Elizabeth McGuigan is Director of Legislative and Policy Research at the National Shooting Sports Foundation. 

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53 COMMENTS

  1. “That is, of course, if such a law ever passed constitutional muster. ”

    No legislation or law is required to “pass constitutional muster.” Law first, due process later. Between the passage and court settlement, much mischief is available. The process is the punishment. There may not be many who are arrested and charged, but each one will rue the day.

  2. I often wonder how many semi auto rifles are in this country. Between AR15s, AR10s, SCARs, and AKs, it surely must be over 100 million. Perhaps I’m optimistic. I sure hope that this is the number.

      • I’m sure it’s nowhere near 100 million, if you’re talking about AR-style semi-auto rifles (and AKs, SCARs, etc.). The NRA estimates that between 8.5 million and 15 million “assault rifles” are in circulation in the US. The Bernie Sanders campaign has been using 10 million as its number in its campaign material. For a variety of reasons, it’s impossible to know the actual number.

        Most estimates of TOTAL number of guns in private hands in the US place that number at around 395 million. I doubt AR-style semi-autos and their like account for more than 5% of all firearms.

  3. He really is Alfred E. if thinks that would happen. New Zealanders are more compliant than Americans and they have flipped the bird to turn-ins even at nearly retail prices. That means these dunces don’t understand at all, the concept, the interpretation and the execution of the Amendment. He should re-read the 2nd paragraph of the Declaration of Independence where it speaks of not changing government for light and transient Causes. The Causes do not have to take place over a long period of time. One legislative session could be so egregious that immediate action would be needed. Why do I never hear the left espousing a philosophical reason why the law-abiding populace should ever be disarmed. He needs to read some Cesare Beccaria or even Niccolo as in Machiavelli. Both favored an armed population and Beccaria does it in language that mirrors current thought. Check Ronald Dworkin on the social costs of freedoms.

  4. Yeah okay, ask New Zealand how well it’s workin for them and ask New York how many complied with the SAFE act. This dude lost to Cruz in Texas on his open boarders and gun control platform.

  5. Butthead Beto is totally ignorant of the Constitutional and American history. Ever heard of “…the right to keep and bear arms shall NOT be infringed?” and why do you think the law got enacted in the first place? It’s because the kings men tried to confiscated the citizens firearms at Concord and Lexington.

  6. “Manufacturing and then selling a home-build firearm to anyone is a crime.” Someone who is Director of Legislative and Policy Research at the National Shooting Sports Foundation should know that this is not so. It is illegal to make a homemade firearm for sale, not to sell a homemade firearm I made for myself and don’t want anymore.

    • It said, genius – “Manufacturing and then selling”.

      It did *not* say “Manufactured for personal use and sold later”.

      So, she was *correct*. Reading comprehension is a thing, dude…

      • “Reading comprehension is a thing, dude…”

        In any group, there develops a short-hand for many concepts (at large, take note of how many uses and meanings are served by a single, four letter word). The original article used short hand about not being able to sell homemade guns, and the response used shorthand to counter that selling homemade guns could be sold.

        If we plan to play language police, we need to be quite careful about our own misuse, or maybe just politely ask for clarification. If slamming each other here is our best and highest reward, we are a poor people indeed.

      • I’m pretty sure from an ATF standpoint you can manufacture a firearm at home without a serial number, such as an 80%, lower and keep it for personal use (check your state laws). If you were to sell it, however, you would have to engrave it with a serial number and register it with the ATF prior to sale. There are requirements for the engraving as well, such as location, font type and size, and depth of the engraving.

        • But if you were to GIVE it to someone would that be illegal as well?

          Maybe only if they “gave” you something in return?

          Semantics!

        • “But if you were to GIVE it to someone would that be illegal as well?”

          Not necessarily. However…..

          A serial number must be applied, then certain paperwork recording the gift/sale sent to the ATF. ATF has instructions on website.

        • If you want to claim that a home made gun requires a serial number and “registration” before being sold, please provide some evidence.

          NO, NFA “Class 3” rules don’t count.
          We’re talking about normal guns, not NFA stuff.

          NO, state laws don’t count.
          We’re taking about Federal law here.

    • Going to the dance with some gov’t shyster/thug on the finer details/schedule of that plan? How long will think that will last.

  7. It would be strange usher in 2020 with a new country, political system and courts and judges with new laws. It would be a mess if such laws ever happened. I think the approach the dems are taking is propose such extreme measures and then come back with “compromise” killing the second by taxing it…

  8. ” making criminals out of those who treasure their Second Amendment rights” this is step one of the endgame right here, make the general public think that gun owning populous is a problem waiting to happen (which they are actively doing in the media right now) then once ostracized by the brainwashed general public their voices of “I’m right and you are evil” still ringing confiscation will come for firearms and then the removal of those with pro 2A stances from “their society”. See german history for reference

    • The left is succeeding in their efforts to demonize conservatives.

      Last summer I was setting at a table in a senior center is a very small town in a conservative part of the state. As two older women walked past my table one said, “republicans are evil”. I didn’t hear the preceding or following words but it was not said in a humorous tone, more of an angry tone.

      I did not engage her because I was a guest of a member but in thinking about it since I regret not saying something to her.

      It demonstrated to me just how successful the left/media is in indoctrinating citizens. We are losing.

      Be Prepared !

  9. Beto is a gay-op to humiliate white men, by casting him as a sex symbol.

    Remember when Texas was white? And whites people named “Robert” didn’t have to LARP as Mexicans to get elected? I remember.

    #supportwayne

  10. I have watched Mr. Robert Francis O’Rourke with GREAT amusement since he first announced his intention to challenge Ted Cruz for his U.S. Senate seat from the great state of Texas. It is impossible to take him seriously and I would suggest his time would be better spent pursuing a carreer as a stand up comedian or an opinion show host on CNN or MSNBC. I agree, along with every other responsible legal (and mostly law abiding) gun owner, that mass shootings ARE appaling, but I vehemently disagree with his contention that the majority of LEGAL gun owners will bow to the demands of a wanna-be dictator and just toss our guns out in the street to be collected by his version of the “brown shirts”. No AMERICAN LEO or member of the U.S. military will see this as a lawful order and his only recourse would be for some Socialist/ Communist organization (the U.N. perhaps?) authorized by him to ATTEMPT confiscation resulting in a lot of dead and injured Socialist/Communists. This is actually a moot point since Beto has about as much of a chance of becomming the POTUS as my 5 month old kitten Stormy D, but he needs to keep up the good work of burning through George Soros’ money (he has plenty) and will hopefully hang in there as long as he can, next to “Crazy Old Uncle Joe” Mr. O’Rourke is currently the most amusing and entertaining clown on the political stage.. MOLON LABE is more than a catchy sounding phrase on a bumper sticker.

    • You beat me to it. No let me rephrase that.

      Really “Green Lumber” The fall for TTAG has so far that you need Green Lumber?

      Write it off to std internet stupid and sell this thing back.

      • I LOLed at that post. Really, really, really hard.

        Green Lumber… FFS… seriously. I mean, between the name of the stuff and the sort of slap in the face to the TTAG audience and… Christ it just doesn’t stop. George Carlin could have had a whole skit on that post.

        Geoff is right. That comment section would have been a clown-car-dumpster-fire-train-wreck of epic proportions. Personally I’d have left that comment section open just to see if it outdid a GarandThumb comment section on YouTube. His comment sections are off the chain and this could have been way, way better.

        Ah… for what could have been.

      • For a serious dose of phallic humor I suggest anything by Aristophanes.

        Ah, the good old days when you could joke about hilarious topics like penises… and rape, torture, murder, war, human trafficking, racism, foreigners and child sex slavery all in a play that the whole of the city paid to watch and for which you won awards!

        • So, How much wood
          would a woodchuck chuck
          if a woodchuck could chuck
          wood

          I always thought green lumber was a bunch of planks that needed to go in the kiln….

        • “…a bunch of planks that needed to go in the kiln…”

          Gangbang metaphors!? Well played.

          This is why I’m so sad that comment section wasn’t open!

      • Cause no one commented on the last sponsored post on thermal optics…..and it was embarrassing for TTAG and their sponsor.

        So no comment section.

    • Didn’t know what you were talking about at first (thought maybe it was weed) because I skip most of the sponsored posts. But having read it…wow.

      TTAG actually wasted content space — and my time — on *that* ? I don’t expect sponsored posts to be particularly useful, but I do expect them to at least be relevant. And not stupid. I wouldn’t be surprised if Robert “LARPing Mexican” O’Rourke is already stuffed full of Green Lumber.

      Any more sponsored garbage like that and I’m out. And I’ve been here since 2010, when this was just a scrappy little upstart blog.

  11. Off topic, but I cannot post on the “green wood” sponsored post. I’ve been reading TTAG at least twice a week since 2012, and have enjoyed it greatly. But things are going down hill since RF handed it over. I can stomach the sponsored posts for new guns and related products. I think they detract from the credibility of the publication, but they are at least labeled as sponsored posts and they are generally on topic (and usually interesting). But now, adds for boner pills in the same format? I understand and expect adds for boner pills in the margins. Hey, you have to pay the bills somehow, and add revenue does that. But as it’s done here, in the same format as an article, is beyond cheesy. Want to shed long-term readers? Do more of this.

  12. our country’s Founding Fathers wrote the 2nd A because they knew there’d be politicians just like Beto.

    Remember that people. Remember that Beto……

  13. O’Rourke and the crew and the Democrats keep calling for a revolution of the people. They seem to forget that it can work against them just as well or better.

  14. I just need to clarify something in this article because a situation arose that made me have to check the law on this because the individual thought he was going to have to destroy his 80% firearm:

    Manufacturing and then selling a home-build firearm to anyone is a crime.

    Not necessarily. As I found out, it depends on the INTENT of the person who made it. If he makes it with the intent to keep it for himself, he can later legally sell it or transfer it to another person. If the person is making them with the sole intent TO SELL THEM, then manufacturing and then selling a home-built firearm to anyone is a crime.

    In other words, if the individual is making them with the INTENT TO SELL them, that is no bueno!

  15. I know a lot of active and retired LEO’s and military who say that there is no freakin’ way they’d ever obey any order to take ANY firearm from a law abiding citizen. Beto talks about “buying” back, but he couldn’t pass a background check nor could our government which has a history of violence and lunacy.

    • You might those that say that, but how many would risk job and pension by refusing to do so? The point is somewhat moot, because of all the federal government agencies that have their own storm troopers(thanks to Obama). I am sure that he had another reason to form those departments (sarc).

  16. I’d be concerned, ‘cept it’s Beta. There’s no chance in hell he’ll get the nomination, so long as the dementia-riddled husk of Biden is still simulating breathing.

  17. An industry source was quoted as saying there are about 16 million AR-15 style rifles in private hands. Which means the O’Rourke’s mandatory buy back program would cost, thanks to the 5th Amendment, the American tax payer around 24 Billion dollars just for the AR-15s. And that buy-back might prevent the deaths of less then 400 people annually.

  18. A) Bob needs to see the T shirt that says: Despite the look on my face, you’re still talking.

    B) Why the f is that guy wearing nitrile gloves to handle those guns placed oh-so-gently (ha) in that pickup truck? Do they have girl cooties?

  19. Presidential contender Robert “Beto” O’Rourke
    —————————————————————————-

    Um, have to say I never thought of him as a “Contender”. Seems like an “also ran” sort to me. I mean his losing strategy in this race was to announce he was in it.

  20. ” “I don’t see the law enforcement going door to door,” said the former Texas congressman. “I see Americans complying with the law. ”

    How much deeper can this guy push his head into the sand?

  21. As stated above: the compliance rates, the absolute logistical nightmare of coordinating such a thing, and the fact most LEOs, military personnel, and other alphabet agency members (especially those trained for confrontations) saying ” F@$$ that noise” make a mandatory buy back and confiscation a pipe dream. COULD it happen? Yes, but likewise, I COULD win the lottery too, but what are my chances?

  22. I noticed they didn’t even have the guts to allow comments on the sponsored post just below this one. That thing is effing embarrassing. Way to whore yourselves out for cash.

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