The Truth about Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke’s “Gun Buy Back” Platform and Australia’s Gun Control

Robert Francis O’Rourke has pivoted his presidential bid into an attack on the Second Amendment and the Constitution. There’s no other way to put it. He recently tripled down on his rhetoric, and it was full of lies.

In an interview, Robert O’Rourke or Beta as some have started to refer to him, explained how he’ll circumvent the Second Amendment to implement his “buyback” program.

Let’s stop here for a moment. This isn’t a buyback; it’s a confiscation. Don’t let liberals dress this in nice wording. It is a mandatory confiscation that ultimately has to be enforced at gunpoint. The video linked at the bottom has some really good points on this.

Beta said that the confiscation program will work because he expects Americans to follow the law. He said this with a straight face while discussing a law that is clearly unconstitutional. Irony truly is lost on the left.

Elaborating further, O’Rourke suggested that he would use fines to compel Americans to follow the confiscation law. He then tried to justify his program by claiming that Australia reduced gun deaths by 50 percent when they instituted a similar program.

This is the biggest lie in the interview. Every study done on the Australian buyback program agrees that it did not cause a massive decline in homicide. Let’s clarify. The confiscation did coincide with a dramatic decrease in homicide, but there’s no causal link.

You see, the 80s were a violent time in the West. Homicides were up in Europe, North America and Australia. Then, in the 90s, those homicide rates went into freefall, in all three continents. The decline continued through the early 2000s until they found a new relative bottom in the 2010s.

Australia’s confiscation was implemented after this freefall had already started, and the evidence shows that Australia saw less of a decline after their confiscation than countries in North America that had no such gun laws. In short, the data make it clear that gun laws had nothing to do with this global trend.

There’s another lie that is always parroted. They say that Australia banned guns and never had another mass shooting. That’s another outright lie. For starters, Australia has had a few mass shootings since the ban was passed. Considering the country has had about 30 mass shootings in its entire history, this isn’t exactly a big win.

Worse, it looks like mass shootings were largely replaced by arson as a means for mass murder. The average death toll for arson in Australia is much higher than shootings. Trading guns for fire made the problem worse.

These are just a few points that the left, and O’Rourke, are constantly getting wrong. There’s a lot more to dissect in this argument, and you’ll find it in the video.

Dan Bongino is a former member of the Secret Service, and some of the things he says are truly eye opening. There’s a good chance you’ll be shocked by a few of the truths you’ll learn in this video. In fact, it’ll be hard for you to watch it without wanting to share it far and wide.