No Regrets: America Continues to Ignore Beto O’Rourke, But He Still Hasn’t Let That Stop Him

In case you missed it, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, the former U.S. Representative and failed presidential, Senate and gubernatorial candidate, recently said that he has no regrets in calling for a ban on modern sporting rifles.

It would have been easy to miss his announcement. He explained himself during the much ballyhooed debate over Texas’ congressional redistricting while he was attempting to once again insert himself to gain a level of national recognition. That effort — much like his attempt to ban the most-popular selling centerfire rifle in America — fell flat. It turns out that Texas and the rest of America have no regrets about ignoring Beto.

O’Rourke infamously called not just for a ban on MSRs during a 2019 presidential campaign debate, he also called for outright confiscation.

‘Hell Yes’ Meets ‘Hell No’

“Hell yes, we’re taking your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke said in response to a moderator’s question about banning and confiscating lawfully-owned firearms.

That was after he lost a Texas Senate race to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. He would later wash out of the race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president and yet again when he tried his hand against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The truth is that no one seems to care what O’Rourke has to say, especially when it comes to violating the Constitutional rights of Americans – much less Texans. If O’Rourke hasn’t figured it out by now, Texas and the rest of American have no regrets about ditching him and his gun control ideas.

Out of Touch

It’s not America that needs to listen to Robert Francis O’Rourke. He’s the one who needs to listen to America.

MSRs include AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles that are the most popular-selling semiautomatic rifle today. There are over 30 million of them in circulation and they operate on the same one trigger pull, one round fired technology that has been around for over a century. The original ArmaLite Rifle was developed in the 1950s and Colt began making MSRs commercially available in the early 1960s. This was before the U.S. military adopted the use of the fully automatic rifle, the M-16. Fully-automatic firearms have been heavily regulated and restricted from civilian ownership since 1934, and new models have been banned from commercial sale since 1986.

It’s not that O’Rourke hasn’t been listening lately, he hasn’t listened at all when it comes to MSR ownership. Even media outlets that are known to be hostile to gun rights and lawful gun ownership have begrudgingly admitted that MSRs are the rifle of choice for millions of law abiding gun owners today.

The New Yorker, NBC News, NPR, The Washington Post and even British media, including BBC and The Guardian have acknowledged that fact despite the constant negative media coverage they provide and the barrage of gun control rhetoric funneled through their outlets by gun control groups. The MSR is “America’s Rifle.”

O’Rourke attempted to moderate his call for confiscation, which he now says he doesn’t regret. After the predictable backlash, O’Rourke tried to walk that back a bit, saying, “I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone. 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.”

He also proposed that law-abiding gun owners could keep their MSRs, but could only access and use them if they were stored at a hunt club or a gun range. That was after a student in Des Moines, Iowa, told him that using an MSR was an efficient deer hunting rifle.

“So, this is the first time that I’ve heard the case made for using an AR-15 to hunt deer,” O’Rourke said, according to The Washington Examiner. “I’ve heard feral hogs in Texas, which are a real problem…”

A Constitutional Right

Except the Second Amendment isn’t about hunting or recreational shooting. While those are great and legitimate and lawful uses for firearms, the Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms without any conditions. A Florida woman, eight months pregnant, used an MSR to defend her and her husband’s lives against home invaders in 2019. An Oklahoma 23-year-old used an MSR to defend against home invaders in 2017.

Stephen Halbrook, senior fellow at the Independent Institute and author of several books on the Second Amendment, wrote in 2022, “Under the Heller test, as elaborated upon by Bruen, AR-15s and similar semiautomatic firearms may not be prohibited. Indeed, Heller and Bruen together establish the test for any ban on firearms, and that test makes clear that all firearms in common use for lawful purposes are protected and cannot be banned.”

O’Rourke might not regret his call to confiscate and ban Americans’ MSRs. At the same time, tens of millions of law-abiding MSR owners don’t regret dismissing O’Rourke or his insane ideas.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.