Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke Wednesday defined his call for a mandatory gun buyback program, arguing with CNN's Alisyn Camerota, who contended that it "doesn't make sense" to think that people who intend to break the law will hand over their guns.
"You expect mass shooters to follow the law?" Camerota argued with O'Rourke during a segment on "New Day." "Congressman, mass shooters by definition, they don't follow the law."
"It's pretty simple," the former Texas congressman told Camerota, following up the argument he gave during Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate. "As with any law in this country, we would expect our fellow Americans to follow the law. It's something that distinguishes us from the rest of the world. We're a nation of laws and no person is above the law, no matter how much they may disagree with a given law."
O'Rourke and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg also sparred over the issue during the debate, with Buttigieg maintaining O'Rourke's call for a mandatory buyback of AR-15s and AK-47s does not address how to get the weapons off the streets.
Wednesday, O'Rourke said the weapons were designed to kill people on a battlefield, and have no use for hunting or for self-defense, but to "kill people at a terrifying rate and terrifying numbers."
He told Camerota that there is "no excuse for not taking action now, while we have the opportunity to do the right thing."
"I don't know that you make any law or stop making any law because you fear that some people will not follow a law, in any part of American life," he added. "Yes, if somebody has an assault weapon, a weapon of war, imposes a danger to people in their lives or people in their community, people in our lives, then we're going to stop them."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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