Presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke explicitly called for confiscating guns in the democratic debates. Briscoe Cain, a Texas lawmaker, sent a tweet in response that said, “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis.”
O’Rourke interpreted this as a death threat, but he sent out his own threat that night. When O’Rourke said he will take the justly acquired property of others, there was an implicit threat of death in that statement.
Death Threats Most Frequently Come from Government
There is an ultimate facet of enforcement to every law. Every edict of the state comes with a death threat. If you resist the government and its edicts, the government will retaliate either violently or with the threat of violence. This is the nature of government. It is inherently a monopoly on the use of force. IfO’Rourke insists on taking your guns, he insists on killing those who resist.
Government agents play the victim card quite well. By having the mindless masses cheer for him, O’Rourke is claiming to have a license to do this. The fact is, however, the government has no different moral code from the people. If I attempt to forcibly take your guns and you shoot me in that struggle, you are acting in self-defense. The person making the threat, in this example, is me. If I try to take your car, and you defend yourself, that does not make you a criminal. Rather, it makes the carjacker a criminal.
A Word on Hypocrisy
Beto O’Rourke has openly called Donald Trump a white supremacist. Whether President Trump is or is not a white supremacist is of no concern to this article, but let’s just suppose he is, for the sake of argument. If Donald Trump is a white supremacist, then O’Rourke is openly advocating for revoking the ability of minorities to defend themselves from the government that is run by a white supremacist.
Remember, the government is force. If a white supremacist is at the helm of the state, then nonwhites are a likely target of government force. Any gun law, even “Red Flag“ confiscations, is especially dangerous for minorities when a white supremacist in power. While abhorrent, hate has no inherent power. When a hateful person is the president, however, it has enough power to ruin the lives of the marginalized. If O’Rourke truly believes Trump is a white supremacist, then he is actively encouraging him to oppress minorities by disarming them.
So no, the Texas lawmaker did not send O’Rourke a death threat. Rather, O’Rourke’s policy carries an implicit threat of violence against all gun owners. He also sent a death threat to every individual in the country who owns an AR-15 or AK-47, two of the most common rifles in the U.S. Since government action is backed by the barrel of a gun, O’Rourke is far more pro-gun violence than gun rights.
