Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke may have just stepped on his biggest rake yet – by using the government massacre of four students at Kent State University back in 1970 as a reason why the government should take law abiding citizens’ guns.
You read that right. The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate slammed Second Amendment advocates for allegedly showing up to his rally this week toting sporting rifles in a show of support for gun rights, using the deadly shooting nearly 50 years ago to say gun rights activists were trying to "intimidate us in our own democracy."
And don’t take my word for it – here’s Beto, in his own words.
“Yesterday, people brought assault weapons to our rally at Kent State—where 4 students were shot dead in 1970. I told them nobody should show up with an AK-47 or an AR-15 to seek to intimidate us in our own democracy,” O’Rourke tweeted, along with a video showing him promising to forcibly “buy back” citizens’ AR-15s and AK-47s if he’s elected president.
Yesterday, people brought assault weapons to our rally at Kent State—where 4 students were shot dead in 1970.
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 26, 2019
I told them nobody should show up with an AK-47 or an AR-15 to seek to intimidate us in our own democracy.
We need to buy back every single one of them. pic.twitter.com/U7N5fWUlvv
Except that the Kent State massacre had nothing to do with ordinary citizens owning guns, much less AR-15s. Those four students shot dead on May 4, 1970 were killed by the Ohio National Guard – which is, ironically, part of the same government O’Rourke is now saying should confiscate Americans’ firearms and strip them of their ability to defend themselves from tyranny.
Which is exactly why Second Amendment supporters advocate for having guns in the first place.
(Cover photo credit: Cliff, Flickr)