Beto O'Rourke goes all-in on gun control at Democratic presidential debate
Democratic presidential candidate calls for gun confiscation; reaction on 'The Five.'
CNN pundit Amanda Carpenter blasted former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke on Friday over his vow during Thursday night's primary debate to seize AR-15s, warning that his remarks had "significantly" improved President Trump's chances of being reelected.
Of O'Rourke's pledge to "take" AR-15s and AK-47s, she said the damage goes far beyond the Dem presidential hopeful's campaign.
"I'm one of those moms who's very worried about school shootings [and] believe in the Second Amendment... I am angry at what Beto O'Rourke said, not because I think it's unworkable. It's because I think it's going to stop any chance of getting anything done in Washington," Carpenter began. "If you want stronger background checks, 'red flag' laws, two things I'm very interested in, Beto just did a huge disservice to that because no Republican can go to the table now in good faith thinking that liberals don't want to take your guns. Because you have Beto on the tape right there."
BETO'S AR-15 FLIP-FLOP: O'ROURKE ONCE VOWED 'NOBODY' WANTS TO SEIZE GUNS
There was then a heated exchange between Carpenter and liberal commentator Angela Rye, who sided with O'Rourke on banning the AR-15.
"Listen, I'm not a fan of that weapon. I think there are things that you can do to increase the classification to make it harder to get," Carpenter continued, "but if you think that the answer is that the government is going to be knocking on every door and taking weapons out of someone's house -- and if you want federal licensing of guns, this is exactly what every gun owner fears happening."
At Thursday night's debate, O'Rourke was pressed by ABC's "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir about whether he was proposing "taking away" guns from lawful gun owners. He said he was, specifically referencing weapons "designed to kill people on a battlefield."
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"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," he said. "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, [that] there weren't enough ambulances to get to them in time."
He then vowed, "Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore."
His campaign has even produced a shirt with the slogan.