It’s going to be a showdown. Two Texans are at far ends of the street in what is bound to be a fight.
One wants to grab up everyone’s guns. That’s former Texas Democratic Congressman Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, who shouted, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
Joe Biden said he’d pin a badge on him and put him to work getting it done.
The other is Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and he’s got a simple message. “[Democrats] want to come and confiscate your guns… F*** no,” he said.
That’s why U.S. Rep. Crenshaw was in Georgia stumping for Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in their runoff elections. Cue the clanging spurs and rolling sagebrush. Before the two take 10 paces, there’s a few things to consider about this gunfight that’s brewing on Capitol Hill.
Gun Grabbers
There’s former Congressman O’Rourke. He’s a three-term U.S. Representative who ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas and was roundly defeated by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). He then threw his hat into the presidential nomination arena where he gained notoriety for his “Hell, yes” moment, but quickly flamed out.
O’Rourke doesn’t know the first thing about the firearms he wants to seize, which puts him in like-minded company with the incoming Biden-Harris administration that clings to the idea of forcible confiscation. O’Rourke said no one uses them for hunting. Imagine his shock when he was schooled in 2019 by a Des Moines, Iowa, student who told him the AR-15 was an efficient tool for harvesting deer.
“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 a Washington Examiner report. “I’ve heard feral hogs in Texas, which are a real problem…”
O’Rourke doesn’t know how he’d round up the 20 million MSRs in circulation today. He said he wouldn’t use police, something with which he’s had first-hand experience. He was arrested in the 1990s for burglary and DUI. He owned up to it, calling the burglary charge just “horsing around” when he snuck under a University of El Paso fence, tripping an alarm. The DUI charge was dismissed after he completed a court-mandated program.
O’Rourke – and Joe Biden – don’t know the first thing about the firearm they’re talking about confiscating. Biden told a union worker he wasn’t going to confiscate “AR-14s.” Good thing, because they don’t exist. This is also the guy whose gun advice is to blindly fire shotguns into the air and have cops shoot out the knees of “unarmed” attackers carrying knives. (Hint – when they have a knife, they’re not unarmed.)
Say When
They’re facing off with Congressman Crenshaw. He’s notable on Capitol Hill for his black eye patch. It’s not a fashion statement, but a visible reminder of his service as a U.S. Navy SEAL and the wounds he incurred facing off against terrorists in his third combat deployment while in Afghanistan. He did two more deployments after being injured. He’s now serving his second term in Congress.
Congressman Crenshaw’s combat time clearly qualifies him to recognize a “weapon of war” versus a semiautomatic firearm that’s used for lawful purposes. These are the same firearms that use technology that’s over 100 years old and has been sold as a sporting rifle since the early 1960s. He knows the difference between today’s most popular selling centerfire rifle and the automatic grenade launchers he used in war.
Congressman Crenshaw is an unashamed Second Amendment defender. His defiant stance against an unconstitutional gun grab isn’t bluster. That’s why he was in Georgia – to make sure The Peach State sends Sens. Perdue and Loeffler back to Congress to block these outrageous ideas.
Looking at the showdown, the smart money is on the guy who knows his way around a gun and knows what it means to win a gunfight.
Lawrence G. Keane is the Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry trade association.