HOUSTON, Texas — Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke is “done in Texas,” Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said in response to the Democratic presidential candidate’s promise to confiscate AR-15s.
Former Congressman O’Rourke stood on the stage of the Democrat’s presidential debate in Houston on September 12 and proclaimed “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” Breitbart News’ AWR Hawkins reported at the time. Moderators asked the candidate if that meant he is ready to support confiscation. O’Rourke replied, “I am if it’s a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield.” O’Rourke went on to say he would implement fines to “compel” compliance to an AR-15 ban.
“When I heard Beto’s now infamous statement in the debate last week – ‘hell yes we are going to take your AR-15’s and your AK-47’s…’ My first thought was, thank God he lost to Ted Cruz,” Lt. Governor Patrick said in an email to supporters. “Because the Texas press never asked him any serious questions in that race, it wasn’t clear until now what a radical left-winger he is – the most radical of all the looney leftists and socialists currently running for president.”
“My second thought was he will never be a threat in Texas politics again,” Patrick stated. “He’s stuck in tiny single digits in the polls, so he’s not going to be president, but now the Democrats can’t even put him on the ticket with the hope that he will help win Texas. He’s a gun confiscator – he’s done in our state.”
Governor Patrick went on to mock O’Rourke’s selling “Hell Yes” t-shirts, calling the move “another flailing attempt to hide his naked ambition and distract from his doomed campaign.”
While making his promise to confiscate what he considers “weapons of war,” Beto cited a conversation he claims to have had with a woman whose daughter died in the Midland-Odessa shooting, Charlie Spiering reported.
“When we see that being used against children, and in Odessa, I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an AR-15, and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that AR-15 in Odessa and Midland,” O’Rourke said on stage during the debate, “there weren’t enough ambulances to get to them in time, hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
A fact-check by Joel Pollak revealed false claims in the former congressman’s statement.
Pollak cited a KOSA-CBS report:
The claim that there weren’t enough ambulances is false, according to information given to CBS7 by the City of Odessa.
The Odessa Fire Department arrived at Freedom Buick GMC Truck on 42nd Street 7 minutes and 21 seconds after Leilah Hernandez and her brother Nathan were reported shot to 911, according to the city.
An ambulance arrived about a minute later.
We’re told that all 30+ ambulances in Odessa were scrambled two Saturdays ago after the shooting started. Plus the City of Midland sent many over to assist.
“Beto says he has talked to people in Texas who own AR-15s and they support his confiscation plan – so he found some liberal who agrees with him,” Patrick continued. “It’s a big state, but the people I talk to don’t want to give up their guns. They know it is the evil intentions of a shooter, not the gun that is a threat to our safety.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face
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