** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **
Beto O’Rourke is back on the campaign trail. This time, he wants to be governor of Texas. He’s already touting his anti-Second Amendment agenda.
In an interview with local media, O’Rourke said, “I think most Texans can agree — maybe all Texans can agree — that we should not see our friends, our family members, our neighbors, shot up with weapons that were originally designed for use on a battlefield.”
His contention that everyday Americans are in possession of “military-style weapons” that were “designed for use on a battlefield” is dishonest and misleading; and both, likely, intentionally. Many firearms actually came from civilian innovation long before they were ever adapted to the military.
“From our country’s beginnings, the greatest army on Earth was the British infantry. When we met them at Lexington and Concord, we met them with similar guns that the citizens had of their own. When the war started, we definitely had the upper hand and that came from the civilian line of rifles,” said Phil Schreier, senior curator of NRA Museums. “Americans didn’t develop a rifle for the military until 1803, whereas civilians had been using them since the early 1700s.”
Beyond that, civilian use of firearms prior to their military adaptation has continued into modern times. “The AR-15 was first designed for civilians. Also, right now, the U.S. Army’s M18 was basically the SIG 320, which has been on the civilian market for years,” said Schreier. “Even the Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle was out there as a civilian rifle before the army adopted it in 1991 for use in Operation Desert Storm.”
From our days in the American Revolution to modern times, civilians have used and helped to innovate firearms. There is a longstanding relationship between private gun makers, armed citizens, and our armed forces in the U.S. It is a beneficial relationship, but this doesn’t mean that citizens’ AR-type rifles are the same as the automatic firearms used by the military. They are functionally very different.
Of course, you’ll recall—as we’ve reported here at A1F.com—that Beto has previously said, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.” Now O’Rourke is attempting to unseat incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who, earlier this year, signed constitutional carry into law in the Lone Star State along with a number of other pro-Second Amendment bills.
“Rehashing an old anti-gun campaign isn’t his only sign of desperation, though,” wrote the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, following O’Rourke’s “Hell, yes” proclamation. “If these tactics don’t work, which they likely won’t, can we expect O’Rourke to dive even deeper into the anti-gun end of the pool, and start promoting the repeal of the Second Amendment? As we often say, stay tuned!”
