O’Rourke’s buyback blowback plays same tired tune

James Burnett, president of the Harris County Young Democrats, isn’t sold on the idea of a mandatory buyback of certain high-powered firearms, as Beto O’Rourke proposed during the recent presidential debate in Houston.

“When we see that being used against children … hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke said after describing the damage such weapons inflicted in the August mass shootings in Odessa and in his hometown of El Paso, as well as other places.

It was a good line that drew enthusiastic applause at the debate but was an unwise statement from a candidate for president — or statewide office in Texas.

“He said what a lot of Democrats have been thinking for a long time,” Burnett observed.

For his own part, Burnett had concerns about how such a proposal would be implemented. It was unclear to him how a president might retrieve guns from Americans who aren’t prepared to give them up willingly— or how O’Rourke might muscle any of his gun-safety proposals through Congress, which hasn’t approved significant gun reform since the 1994 assault weapons ban. That temporary measure lapsed in 2004.

Burnett continues to support O’Rourke and said he hopes to see him in the White House someday. He was unfazed by the criticism that has been leveled at the El Pasoan in the wake of the debate.

“Par for the course,” Burnett said, dismissively.

O’Rourke has elicited pushback from Republicans — and some Democrats — since he began speaking more passionately about gun reform in recent months.

Republicans, and the National Rifle Association, have long cast Democrats as gun-grabbers.

“He’s agun confiscator,” declared Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who has been getting blowback of his own for suggesting stronger background checks after back-to-back mass shootings this summer left 30 dead. “He’s done in our state.”

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, another Texas Republican, suggested that O’Rourke had “thrown gasoline” on talks that had been proceeding in a “pretty calm, rational, and logical way” to address gun violence.

“He’s set back the debate a lot, maybe by not just years but decades,” Cornyn said in a conference call with reporters.

President Donald Trump was also quick to pounce on O’Rourke. “Dummy Beto made it much harder to make a deal,” Trump tweeted a few days later. “Convinced many that Dems just want to take your guns away.”

Trump has of course made that claim many times, including during his 2016 presidential campaign, when he told supporters in The Woodlands after the Orlando club massacre: “We’re going to save your guns. They’re not going to take away your bullets. They’re not going to shorten up your magazines. They’re not going to do anything.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat, reflected his party’s concerns about energizing gun supporters in 2020 when he said: “I don’t know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto O’Rourke, but it’s no excuse not to go forward.”

Marcel McClinton, aHouston City Council candidate who survived the 2016 shootings across the street from Memorial Drive United Methodist Church, was bemused by the suggestion that O’Rourke is responsible for Congress not taking any action.

“We talk about Democrats in the Senate like Schumer who are ‘champions’ on gun violence prevention, but what has he done?” McClinton asked in atext message.

“He gives interviews, tells us what we already know, and plays it safe,” the 18-year-old continued.

Schumer has called for gun reform, including universal background checks, but legislation to that effect that was passed by the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in February has not been taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Rhonda Hart, whose daughter Kimberly was among the children killed in last year’s mass shooting at Santa Fe High School, was also dismissive of the suggestion that O’Rourke is taking too much risk, politically speaking.

“If you’re more offended about someone coming and rounding up AR-15s than about children dying, I don’t know what’s going on,” Hart told me.

A mandatory buyback, she added, might not be the optimal way to respond to all of the assault-style weapons on the streets. And Colt, the manufacturer of AR-15 rifle, had just announced plans to suspend production of this particular gun, citing an oversaturated consumer market; that struck Hart as astep in the right direction.

She wasn’t inclined to fault O’Rourke for taking such a bold stance on the issue, however, even though she realized some Second Amendment supporters might consider it outrageous, and some Democrats might find it discomfiting.

“I was in high school when Columbine happened,” Hart said. “I remember it like it was yesterday. Twenty years later my kid was shot and killed. I don’t get why we dance around this issue.” erica.grieder@chron.com