Beto O’Rourke slammed Democratic presidential primary rival Pete Buttigieg over the South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s refusal to support “mandatory buyback” confiscation of military-style firearms and accused Buttigieg of being “calculating.”
Both candidates appeared at a gun violence forum in Las Vegas on Wednesday hosted by March For Our Lives, a gun control group formed after a February 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people.
“Those who are worried about the polls and want to triangulate or talk to consultants and listen to the focus groups — and I’m thinking about Mayor Pete on this one, who I think probably wants to get to the right place, but is afraid of doing the right thing, right now,” O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, said during the forum.
O’Rourke elaborated on his comments to reporters. “What Pete has been saying is that a mandatory buyback is the ‘shiny object’ that is distracting us. How in the world can you say that to March For Our Lives?” O’Rourke said. “I was really offended by — by those comments.”
How could you call mandatory buybacks a “shiny object” in front of March For Our Lives? pic.twitter.com/wSg6ItQT2K
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 3, 2019
Earlier during the forum, Buttigieg downplayed the importance of the debate among Democrats about a mandatory military-style weapon “buyback” program versus a voluntary one.
“We have a way sometimes as a party, in my party, of getting caught, just when we’ve amassed the discipline and the force to get something done right away, a shiny object makes it harder for us to focus,” Buttigieg said in response to a question about gun confiscation, redirecting focus to expanding background checks and other widely-supported gun control measures.
When asked later in the evening if he finds Buttigieg “particularly calculating with this stuff,” O’Rourke responded in the affirmative.
“Yes. His comment about ‘shiny object’ today was so offensive to anyone who has been shot by one of these weapons or who has lost someone to an AR-15 or AK-47,” O’Rourke said in a text message interview with BuzzFeed News.
O’Rourke made confiscation of military-style weapons a cornerstone of his campaign following an early August mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 people. “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he said during a September Democratic presidential primary debate.
The former Texas congressman, however, took a very different tone toward “mandatory buybacks” during his failed Senate bid last year.
“If you have an AR-15, keep it. I don’t want to take anyone’s guns away from them,” O’Rourke said in August 2018. “I’m not for taking guns away from people,” he said at another point that year.
Though O’Rourke went on the offense against Buttigieg during the forum, he took heat himself during the forum for flip-flopping on gun issues.
“Beto O’Rourke was not for gun licensing ― criticized me when I came out for it,” said New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, another Democratic presidential hopeful. “He saw the horrors visiting his community. Are we going to have to wait until hell’s lottery comes to your community? No, we are a better country.”
