WASHINGTON (AP) — Still mourning a Texas mass shooting, Democrat Beto O’Rourke gave his long-shot campaign a jolt by imploring a national audience that it was finally time for real action to curb the proliferation of high-powered guns in his home state and across America.
That was 2019, and the former congressman was running for president when he declared during a debate, “Hell, yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15,” weeks after a gunman targeting Mexican immigrants killed 23 people at a Wal-Mart in O’Rourke’s native El Paso.
Last week, following the massacre of 19 elementary school students and two teachers by an 18-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle in Uvalde, Texas, O’Rourke — now campaigning for governor — again briefly seized the national political spotlight. This time, that meant crashing the news conference of the man he wants to unseat, Republican Greg Abbott, and declaring — in a moment subsequently viewed widely online — that the carnage was “on you.”
GOPUSA Editor’s Note: Please keep in mind that this is a mainstream media story. The source of the story is in the dateline. We publish it for the purpose of informing our readers and providing an opportunity to discuss it. What is GOPUSA? Read our About Us page to find out.
O’Rourke is betting that the tragedy can reset the governor’s race in America’s largest red state — despite Abbott twice previously winning election by landslides and having begun the campaign with $55 million in the bank and despite gun culture looming larger in Texas than perhaps anywhere else.
It didn’t work in 2019. O’Rourke’s debate declaration won him praise from other Democrats on stage and a fundraising bump. But he dropped out of the race barely six weeks later.
It’s too early to tell what will happen in the governor’s race, but the shooting has already affected both parties. Abbott canceled his planned visit to the annual National Rifle Association meeting to remain in Uvalde. Also skipping it was Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who is among those negotiating with Democratic colleagues on strengthening background checks and “red flag” laws allowing authorities to remove firearms from those determined to be a danger to themselves or others.
“I think it felt cathartic for a lot of people that maybe might have been on the fence,” said Abel Prado, executive director of the Democratic advocacy group Cambio Texas. “It gives you, ‘At least somebody’s trying to stand up and do something, or at least say something.’”
O’Rourke spent two nights in Uvalde after the shooting, then headed to Houston for a rally against gun violence outside Friday’s meeting of the NRA.
“To those men and women in positions of power who care more about your power than using that power to save the lives of those that you are supposed to serve …. we will defeat you and we will overcome you,” O’Rourke told protesters who chanted his name and the phrase “Vote them out!
Supporters hope O’Rourke recaptures the magic that saw him become a national Democratic star and nearly upset Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. But since then, O’Rourke’s White House bid fizzled, former President Donald Trump easily won Texas in 2020 and Democrats who had hoped to flip scores of congressional and legislative seats in the state that year lost nearly every top race.
A Democrat also hasn’t won Texas’ governorship since 1990, and, just last year, the state loosened firearm restrictions enough to allow virtually any resident age 21 and older to carry guns without a license. Abbott signed that law alongside NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and the group’s president, Carolyn Meadows.
Of course, the domination of guns in Texas culture has long predated the law. Abbott once tweeted his embarrassment at his state lagging California in gun sales, and Cruz is fond of saying, “Give me a horse, a gun and an open plain, and we can conquer the world.” Former Republican Gov. Rick Perry cruised to reelection in 2010 after using a laser-sighted handgun to kill a coyote while jogging.
Mass shootings are similarly not new in Texas. Tuesday’s massacre in Uvalde and the El Paso killings followed a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School outside Houston that killed eight students and two teachers in 2018, and a church rampage in Sutherland Springs that left 26 people dead, including an unborn child, the year before.
Former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Republican long famous for carrying multiple guns nearly everywhere he went, said O’Rourke’s most ardent supporters will be “even more determined to vote for Beto” after his confrontation with Abbott.
Still Patterson said the clash could backfire, alienating otherwise potentially sympathetic swing voters who might think O’Rourke was putting on a self-serving show.
“Sometimes your method overwhelms your message, and his method gutted whatever benefit he might have accrued,” said Patterson, who, as a state senator, wrote Texas’ original, 1995 concealed handgun law allowing Texans to take firearms more places than nearly anywhere in America at the time. “I think it’s a net loss.”
Abbott hasn’t mentioned O’Rourke much since the shooting but answered questions about possible new state gun limits by slamming high crime rates in cities primarily run by Democrats.
“There are more people shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas,” the governor said hyperbolically. Speaking of arguments that new firearms restrictions could make Americans safer, “Chicago and LA and New York disprove that thesis.”
Abbott’s campaign has also previously chided O’Rourke for his previous stand on guns, producing an online ad last year showing a cartoon of O’Rourke speeding the wrong direction down a one-way street, then off a cliff while the radio plays clips of his “Hell yes” comment and other strongly progressive positions he took as a presidential candidate.
O’Rourke’s campaign insists he’s not using the massacre for political gain. It transformed its fundraising apparatus into one accepting donations for relatives of those killed in Uvalde, and says O’Rourke attended the Abbott news conference at the urging of one of the victims’ families.
He sat quietly in the audience for 10-plus minutes, intending only to listen, the campaign said. But, when Abbott said “there was no meaningful forewarning of this crime” other than the gunman posting about the shooting just moments before he began doing so, O’Rourke got angry — especially given that, after the El Paso shooting, the state’s chief response was to loosen gun laws. He approached the stage and accused Abbott of “doing nothing” when the the Uvalde violence had been “totally predictable.”
Also on stage was Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who responded with an obscenity and called O’Rourke “sick” for trying to make the shooing “a political issue.”
But it nonetheless helped one Texan change her mind. Nicole Armijo, who works in her family’s HVAC business in the border city of McAllen and has three kids, ages 10, 9 and 6, attending public school. She didn’t vote for O’Rourke when he ran for Senate but plans to now because “the way we’re doing things is not working.”
“Maybe, Texas, it’s not just about having a gun,” said Armijo, who said she loves guns and hunting but would support expanded background checks. “Beto’s kind of portrayed those thoughts: It’s not about me or you. It’s about everyone as a whole.”
___
More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings.
___
This story has been corrected to show Abbott twice won election, not reelection, by landslides.
© 2022 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
The AR-15, is NOT an assault rifle.
An assault rifle is an “automatic” rifle capable of also firing in the semi-automatic mode.
Actually, there never has been and assault rifle. In late WW2 the Germans made a rifle that could shoot semi or full auto. Since there is no direct translation from German to English over the exact name of that rifle, the english speaking armies called it an assault rifle. Bot the BAR was developed during the last year of WW1 and it could fire both semi and full auto, but because of it’s weight, it was always referred to an automatic rifle. But since this “assault rifle” term only seems to refer to the AR15 and AK47, then let’s go out and buy M1 carbines and Thompsons and BARs. A .30 cal. and .45cal. can do more damage then a .223 cal. but at least we got those terrible “assault rifles” away from the public. Wonder why they didn’t ban shotguns? Columbine mass shooting was done with a 12 gauge shotgun and a handgun.
Actually SturmGewehr-44 does translate: “Sturm”=storm as in storm or assault the barricades and “Gewehr”=rifle or weapon which is also “waffe”. Obviously 44=1944. “Assault Rifle/Weapon 1944”.
Also, you neglected to mention my favorite, the Last Steel Warrior-M14 which had a selector switch enabling full auto fire and the E2 variant which had a pistol grip stock, foregrip and bipod.
https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/ItemImages/000487/20010617_2_lg.jpeg
Give them time, i am sure they can come up with some way to go after pistols and shotguns.
They have to include Automobiles, motorcycles, Trucks, and trains, they kill more people than guns.
‘Hell, Yes, We’re Gonna Take Your AR-15’
#1 Who is “we’re”??
“Guns do only what their handlers manipulate them to do.
“When Cain killed Able with a rock,
God did not confiscate all the rocks,
God blamed Able, Not the Rock.”
Any weapon used by a PERSON to attempt or try to shoot or injury someone is an assault weapon.
How about all you in congress and administration give up your armed security forever, you don’t need it.
IF i had the power, EVERY GUN GRABBER such as beto, WOULD FOREVER BE BANNED from ever having ANY form of armed security.. WHETHER they pay for it out of their own pocket or not.
Beto blew it!!! He won’t win!!
WITH the dems fraud machine, never ever say he will never win!
” Still mourning a Texas mass shooting, Democrat Beto O’Rourke gave his long-shot campaign a jolt by imploring a national audience that it was finally time for real action to curb the proliferation of high-powered guns in his home state and across America.”
This clearly illustrates the over-the-top knee-jerk reactions that flood the news every time there is a catastrophe like the Uvalde shooting. Exaggerated emotion, sensationalism, and drama completely devoid of sound thinking and common sense. To hear these people tell it, “assault weapons” are the only ones capable of killing. Not true—any gun will kill when placed in the hands of someone mentally impaired and/or with ill intent. So, Beto—if “assault weapons” were to be banned, criminals still have plenty of choices. For the umpteenth time—IT IS THE PERSON ABUSING A GUN—NOT THE GUN ITSELF—THAT CAUSES DAMAGE.
The left wingers wouldn’t know what to do if they had to use some common sense and logic about guns. The only thing they know is that a gun was used to kill people so guns need to be banned. They don’t accept the fact that the gun by its self can’t do any harm
MAYBE if when he posted all his videos, he got REPORTED as a nutter, he’d not have been able to BUY the guns! HAS BETO thought of that?!
“It’s not about me or you…”, uh, yeah, it kinda is. You people want to take away my guns and my 2nd amendment. That makes it all about me. Get some common sense, girl!
Lunatic Fringer by Red Ryder
Lunatic fringe
I know you’re out there
You’re in hiding, and you hold your meetings
I can hear you coming
I know what you’re after
We’re wise to you this time (wise to you this time)
We won’t let you kill the laughter
Woah-uh-huh
Woah-uh-huh
Woah-uh-huh
Lunatic fringe
In the twilight’s last gleaming
This is open season
But you won’t get too far
‘Cause you got to blame someone
For your own confusion
We’re on guard this time (on guard this time)
Against your Final Solution
Oh no
Woah-uh-huh
Woah-uh-huh
Woah-uh-huh
We can hear you coming (we can hear you coming)
No, you’re not going to win this time
(You’re not gonna win)
We can hear the footsteps (we can hear the footsteps)
Out along the walkway (out along the walkway)
Lunatic fringe
We all know you’re out there
Can you feel the resistance?
Can you feel the thunder?
Oh no
I have several guns, as do millions in our country. It’s always a deranged, mentally sick loser who goes on a killing rampage. These sick individuals are always stopped by a good, law abiding, responsible gun owner or the coward kill’s himself. We don’t have a problem with gun violence, rather, we have a criminal violence problem. For God’s sake, make these schools fortified like they do for these leftist, political hack judges and their court houses.
Shut up and sit down, Beano, or we’ll sic Lauren Boebert on you again and she will kick your pansy ***.
When will they talk about taking criminals guns ??? What they should do is make a list of every felons home and go visit and look for guns. Be proactive. Go search every felons for guns !! Unseal every Juvenile felons records and go to their homes too.
Unfortunately, when you take out the Ten Commandments and God of our culture should it surprise anyone that this type of event occurs. We end up with a culture predominantly that acts out of depraved minds and hearts, that is where crime starts. Until you start transforming hearts and minds man’s evil nature will prevail. So, if you take all the guns away just think of what destruction your Dodge Ram is capable of. Case in point look at the guy that recently ran down all those town people that were watching a Christmas parade. Or the guy that drove his truck through a Frech street market a few years ago. I heard that the old English translation for insane was, “A mind without God”