Author Topic: What did you think of Beto O'Rourke's idea of confiscating AK-47s and AR-15s?  (Read 3506 times)

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Offline dutch508

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kentuck (93,167 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287277236
 
What did you think of Beto O'Rourke's idea of confiscating AK-47s and AR-15s?

I admired his passion. I think he may have touched a nerve with the voting public?

But, many people are uncomfortable with the word "confiscate". I think the questioner may have set him up with that terminology. It was the wrong word to use, in my opinion.

However, the fact remains. We need to get AK-47s and AR-15s off our streets and out of the hands of dangerous people. They are weapons of war.

We need to ban the sale of these types of weapons, I would agree. If anyone is caught carrying one in the public square, they should lose that weapon immediately. There might be a process for them to get it back but it should be very difficult. This would be a prime instance where the government would likely offer a "buyback", in my opinion.

I was impressed with Beto.

(moved from GD)

 :bird:

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world wide wally (16,320 posts)

1. It had to be said sooner or later.

The DEMS are coming for your guns.

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Star Member brooklynite (54,071 posts)

4. It's badly framed
 
The message that "semi-automatic weapons are bad and we're going to take them away" is an easy sell to gun control advocates but allows the advocates to get tarred as "anti 2A" or "anti gun".

The correct approach would be to START with: "You have a right to own a gun. You will be able to keep your pistol; you will be able to keep your rifle. BUT semi-automatic weapons are only good for violence against innocent people and we're going to take them away"

Thats 90% of pistols and long-guns- Confiscated by the government in violation of the Constitution.

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Star Member Hoyt (39,510 posts)

15. Agree. But, it sounded good last night, especially focusing on the ammo
 
and the damage done. It kind of nullifies gunners’ junk that people don’t like the “looks” of assault style rifles.

It just shows what you are really after- total gun confiscation.

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greymattermom (4,960 posts)

5. Maybe just call it buy back.
 
They did something like this with gold coins many years ago, and it was done by Presidential executive order. Maybe a law against hoarding ARs combined with limits on ammunition would be a good first step. Start calling folks with a lot of guns what they are: Hoarders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

They will probably call it the Second American Civil War.

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Moostache (6,194 posts)

6. Leave the guns, Take the bullets...
 
You may "keep and bear arms"...in the 17th and 18th century the right to bear arms was hereditary in England and kept in the nobility, away from the commoners and 'riff-raff'...a concept the founders wanted no part of in America. The weapons of the day were single shot muskets and pistols....so, I propose a simple solution...

Bullets will cost $5,000 per round (after your complimentary one round to approximate the intention of the Constitution in 1787 for all those strict 'conservatives') and purchase of ammunition will be controlled as much or more than licensing a vehicle for use. There will be training, tests, and most importantly - liability insurance. If you want to own a gun, fine...but there will be MASSIVE restrictions that make it prohibitively expensive and make civil AND criminal liability exhaustively expensive as well. If you fail to control your gun, and it is used in the commission of a crime, YOU are as liable as the perpetrator for civil damages and criminal charges...your gun, your right, your responsibility.

I don't really want anyone's gun...but I do want background checks, magazine capacity limits, and loopholes closed, and then I want the bullets. No bullets? No mass deaths and they can keep their precious guns...

 :bird:

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Star Member Big Blue Marble (3,846 posts)

7. A ban on these weapons will not be enough.
 
Millions are out there:.

"As of 2012, there are an estimated 2.5–3.7 million rifles from just the AR-15 family of rifles in civilian use in the United States; the total number of assault weapons in the United States among all types is not known, and can not be known because of the different definitions in different jurisdictions."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_weapon.

Voluntary buybacks will fail, as the most dangerous, paranoid owners will keep them.

Confiscation will only partly be effective and most likely lead to violence and a thriving
black market with criminals making fortunes. Think Prohibition.

We need to change our culture; that will take time and only be partly successful. We live
amidst a huge gun cult. It grew around us and now we are paying the price in deaths
and destruction with little recourse in the short term.

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Star Member Big Blue Marble (3,846 posts)

13. The citizens of most countries are not nuts about things that are dangerous as automatic weapons!
 
Remember the majority of American do not own guns.

It has only been in the last fifty years that guns have been the center of a cult in this country.
Understand that the tradition of gun ownership in rural areas goes back through our history.
This "passion for the 2n Amendment" has only been fostered during my life time.

It is driven by the gun manufactures who grew the NRA into an wedge issue for
the Republican Party. These gun owners were successfully weaponized with propaganda
to believe that their right to own guns supersedes our rights to be safe.

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Thirty percent of U.S. adults say they personally own a gun, while a larger percentage, 43%, report living in a gun household.

Personal gun ownership varies among the major population subgroups Gallup looks at:

Republicans (45%), men (43%) and self-identified conservatives (40%) are the most likely key subgroups to say they personally own a gun.

Women (17%), Democrats (16%) and Hispanics (15%) are the least likely to report personal gun ownership.

Like every other poll I doubt this one is factual.

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Star Member RKP5637 (56,347 posts)

10. Something needs to be done. It's totally out of control. The gun fetish cult needs to be stopped, somehow.

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essadaw (179 posts)

11. Here is Beto's campaign explanation for how this would work
 
Here is a twitter response from Beto's campaign when Meghan attacked him on this

How a gun buyback would work As you may have heard, @MeghanMcCain had some things to say about Beto's mandatory buy back program today, and a lot of her criticisms were based on popular misconceptions about buybacks that deserve to be addressed. (1/6)

‘How would a buyback even work? This doesn't sound rational’

We would not be the first. Australia & New Zealand both did buybacks. Lots of U.S. cities also hold voluntary buyback programs

Australia saw a 42% decline in its homicide rate in the 7 years after its buyback (2/6)

'There’s no official definition for ‘an assault weapon’ so the government will overreach with an ‘assault weapons ban' & buy back'

Beto's program will apply to all AK & AR-type guns - weapons specifically designed to kill as many people as efficiently as possible (3/6)

‘How can the government buy back a gun it didn't sell? How much would you pay people?'

An independent commission would determine compensation, using market value as a benchmark. This is what Australia did. It would be paid for by a tax on gun manufacturers (4/6)

‘What happens if someone refuses to voluntarily turn in their weapon of war? Couldn't that lead to violence?’

No. If you don’t voluntarily turn in your weapon of war, you will be fined. (5/6)

‘Bad guys aren't going to turn their guns in’

Like New Zealand and Australia, Beto’s program would create a window of amnesty, allowing individuals to turn in their weapons anonymously, without compensation, no questions asked. (6/6)

The stupidity in this is staggering. No, there won't be violence because we will just fine you.

No- criminals will be given a chance to turn in their guns... then we will just fine you.

****ing idiots.  :thatsright:

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customerserviceguy (21,777 posts)

16. It means he has no chance of being a US Senator from Texas.

Also, it becomes trying for other Democratic presidential candidates: "Senator So-and-So, a lot of praise was heaped on Representative O'Rourke for his dealing with the situation in El Paso. Do you support his proposal on mandatory buybacks of certain weapons?"

About the only way to dance away from it is to say, "I can understand Beto's passion on this issue, clearly, a mass shooting affected him in a way that few other candidates can fully empathize with, but I don't necessarily share his approach for something that needs bipartisan support to pass through Congress."

It looked like a desperation move for him, and while it might fatten his campaign coffers for a while, it brings him no closer to the nomination, in my opinion.

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Star Member LincolnRossiter (438 posts)

23. I agree with him, but it's political suicide.
 
And it's never going to happen. So why promise it?

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Star Member aikoaiko (29,675 posts)

25. It's a bad idea. Or in Beto-speak, "It's fukt up!"
 
His distinction that they are weapons of war is intellectually weak. Almost every major design in guns was designed to increase rate of fire in battle including bolt action rifles, revolvers, pistols, pump-action shotguns, and magazine-fed rifles. If he wants to confiscate all "weapons of war" then he's coming for all guns -- even flint-locks.

It is an even more extreme reaction than how we handled machine guns which only required NFA registration and it worked to eliminate homicides with legal machine guns.

I'm personally offended that he thinks I'm a danger if I own one.

It may cost of the 2020 election or subsequent house/senate seats for years to come just as Bill Clinton described after the 1994 AWB.

I'm not impressed with his stance at all and will fight this policy any way I can except for not voting for Democrats.

When people focus on ARs and AKs, I remind them that the larges school mass shooting was at VATech with just two handguns. Even if you snapped your inevitable fingertips and all the ARs and AKs disappeared, it would do nothing to reduce the number of mass shootings.

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Star Member guillaumeb (35,512 posts)

32. The vast majority of Americans see no need for the weapons of war.
 
Some vocal few claim a need. And the NRA, and Russian money, can but enough politicians to block the will of the silent majority.

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Do you think there should or should not be a law that would ban the possession of handguns, except by the police and other authorized persons?    YES 28%   NO 71%

Are you for or against a law which would make it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess semi-automatic guns known as assault rifles?  YES 40%    NO 57%    NO ANSWER 3%

Suppose more Americans were allowed to carry concealed weapons if they passed a criminal background check and training course. If more Americans carried concealed weapons, would the United States be safer or less safe?
SAFER 56%   LESS SAFE  41% NO ANSWER 3%


https://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx


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Star Member Doreen (8,080 posts)

39. I think the word "confiscate" is not a good word to use.
 
I would say optional buy back but if you choose not to sell your assult weapon and it is found ANYWHERE off of your property you will be heavily fined possibly jailed and then have it taken permanently without pay. Those who rent living quarters out will have the choice to say yes or no to allowing assult weapons on the property by their tenants.

I see the assult weapon people being given a choice there.

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DrFunkenstein (8,387 posts)

41. A Texas Congressman Basically Tweeted a Death Threat
 
I hope that it serves to bring more people behind Beto on this one.

Just imagine if someone you knew was killed by the military weapons. Hell yes, confiscate them. Stop *****footing around the NRA. Their time has come.

A Texas Congressman tweeted, "Beto. Come and Take Them."

That's a death threat to a DUmpmonkie.
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Offline jukin

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I think Benito O'rouke's statement on taking away our rights, and letting in everybody frome everywhere, charging us to pay for trillions in freebies, and pushing the LIE of global warming along with killing the economy is a sure fire way to win.

Go BENITO!!!
When you are the beneficiary of someone’s kindness and generosity, it produces a sense of gratitude and community.

When you are the beneficiary of a policy that steals from someone and gives it to you in return for your vote, it produces a sense of entitlement and dependency.

Offline zeitgeist

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'The last act of a desperate man or the first act of Henry III.'  Magnum PI  :rofl:
< watch this space for coming distractions >

Offline DUmpDiver

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Star Member Doreen (8,080 posts)

39. I think the word "confiscate" is not a good word to use.
 
I would say optional buy back but if you choose not to sell your assult weapon and it is found ANYWHERE off of your property you will be heavily fined possibly jailed and then have it taken permanently without pay. Those who rent living quarters out will have the choice to say yes or no to allowing assult weapons on the property by their tenants.

So I'm never supposed to go to a range and just use my AR inside my house?

And I'll just put a salt lick in my yard if I want to go hunting.

Offline 67 Rover

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What did you think of Beto O'Rourke's idea of confiscating AK-47s and AR-15s?

Phew!  For a minute I thought they may try to confiscate my AR-10's but it looks like I am good to go.
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Offline dutch508

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Phew!  For a minute I thought they may try to confiscate my AR-10's but it looks like I am good to go.

I'm waiting for them to realize that the Garand was a 'Weapon of War"...
The torch of moral clarity since 12/18/07

2016 DOTY: 06 Omaha Steve - Is dying for ****'s face! How could you not vote for him, you heartless bastards!?!

Offline DUmpDiver

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kentuck (93,167 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287277236
 
Blah, blah, blah. . 

They are weapons of war.

Blah, blah, blah ...


They can have my trebuchet when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

Offline Muddling 2

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Is "Beto" the guy that looks like Bobby,  but drives like Ted?
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
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Offline SVPete

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I'm waiting for them to realize that the Garand was a 'Weapon of War"...

And shoots about as fast as an AR-15 and fires a much heavier bullet at close to the same muzzle velocity. There are 10 states in the US in which it is illegal to use .223 Remington - the cartridge designed for the AR-15 - to hunt deer, because it is thought to be insufficiently powerful to kill a deer quickly (= minimal suffering).
If, as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/robert-f-kennedy-jr-said-the-covid-19-vaccine-is-the-deadliest-vaccine-ever-made-thats-not-true/ , https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2021/11/23/covid-shots-are-the-deadliest-vaccines-in-medical-history/ , The Vaccine is deadly, where in the US have Pfizer and Moderna hidden the millions of bodies of those who died of "vaccine injury"? Is reality a Big Pharma Shill?

Millions now living should have died. Anti-Covid-Vaxxer ghouls hardest hit.

Offline Karin

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Robert Francis broke the covenant.  They aren't supposed to actually say, "yes, we'll take your guns."  He broke the rule, and thank God.

Offline SVPete

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Re: What did you think of Beto O'Rourke's idea of confiscating AK-47s and AR-15s?
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2019, 09:32:00 AM »
Robert Francis broke the covenant.  They aren't supposed to actually say, "yes, we'll take your guns."  He broke the rule, and thank God.

A Freudian Slip by a fraud Fauxican.
If, as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/robert-f-kennedy-jr-said-the-covid-19-vaccine-is-the-deadliest-vaccine-ever-made-thats-not-true/ , https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2021/11/23/covid-shots-are-the-deadliest-vaccines-in-medical-history/ , The Vaccine is deadly, where in the US have Pfizer and Moderna hidden the millions of bodies of those who died of "vaccine injury"? Is reality a Big Pharma Shill?

Millions now living should have died. Anti-Covid-Vaxxer ghouls hardest hit.

Offline DUmpDiver

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Re: What did you think of Beto O'Rourke's idea of confiscating AK-47s and AR-15s?
« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2019, 04:50:32 PM »
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Star Member brooklynite (54,071 posts)

4. It's badly framed
 
The message that "semi-automatic weapons are bad and we're going to take them away" is an easy sell to gun control advocates but allows the advocates to get tarred as "anti 2A" or "anti gun".

The correct approach would be to START with: "You have a right to own a gun. You will be able to keep your pistol; you will be able to keep your rifle. BUT semi-automatic weapons are only good for violence against innocent people and we're going to take them away"

They're really good for killing bad guys too.  Ask anybody who has used one in self-defense against a home invasion or burglar.

Offline GOP Congress

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Re: What did you think of Beto O'Rourke's idea of confiscating AK-47s and AR-15s?
« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2019, 07:29:24 PM »
BantheGOP has morphed into the entire Democrat Party mindset, thanks to my sock puppet AOC.
"The main purpose of the Democrat Party and the Left is to destroy the United States, transform Western Civilization to a tribal-based dystopia, and to ultimately kill all conservatives and non progressives." - Jonah Kyle