Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke's "hell yes" comment on mandatory buybacks for assault-style weapons during Thursday's Democratic debate in Houston will not help the party's gun-reform efforts, Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen said Friday.
"It doesn't help," Cohen, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and a Democrat, told Kate Bolduan on CNN. "The NRA is never going to go for anything.
"They don't want the camel's-nose-under-the-tent program," he added. "They want to stretch it as far as they can to let guns be everywhere.
"That's where they are coming from," Cohen said.
O'Rourke, 46, who represented his native El Paso in the House for six years, passionately defended his plan for the mandatory buyback program Thursday.
"Hell yes, we're going to take away your AR-15, your AK-47," he said. "We're not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore."
Cohen, 70, who is in his third term, said the National Rifle Association "emasculated" a gun-safety bill he got passed as a Tennessee state senator in the 1990s.
"They have it where you don't even have to go to a rifle, gun range and show proficiency or learn something about gun safety and gun laws before you get your license," he told Bolduan.
"That was the condition of getting a gun permit carry permit."
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