Beto O’Rourke is out of the race. So is Rep. Eric Swalwell. Both men made gun control a central element of their 2020 Democratic primary campaigns and both men had to bow out well before the Iowa Caucuses.

It seems that extreme gun control doesn’t translate itself into strong backing from Democratic voters and fundraisers.

Well, it seems that top-notch political strategist Joy Behar of The View has some advice for candidates.

The ladies of ABC’s “The View” conducted an autopsy of former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign on Monday when his plan to take guns from law-abiding citizens came up. “They should not tell everything they’re going to do,” Ms. Behar said of the Texan’s now-famous “hell yes” attitude toward gun confiscation in America. “If you are going to take people’s guns away, wait until you get elected and then take them away,” Ms. Behar said to laughs and clapping from the studio audience. “Don’t tell them ahead of time.”

Co-host Meghan McCain said, however, that she appreciated O’Rourke’s honesty, pointing out that we figure Democratic candidates are going to try to take our guns anyway. All O’Rourke did is admit to what we all knew he wanted to do in the first place, the very thing Ted Cruz supporters said O’Rourke would do during O’Rourke’s failed Senate race.

However, Behar’s position is terrifying.

What’s she’s advocating for is, basically, a bait and switch tactic from a politician, something she’d be vehemently against if it was on any number of other topics. Yet because it’s about guns, something she doesn’t like, she’s fine with it.

The thing is, Behar represents the thinking of a lot of other people.

What she doesn’t get, however, is that gun confiscation will still spark off a civil war. That’s something you definitely do not want to see in this country if you can avoid it. Gun rights advocates have warned anti-gunners where their line in the sand is and have done so for years. They’ve said it over and over, and yet Behar either doesn’t believe them or worse, she does.

If she does believe them, then she’s hoping for a civil war that wipes out a section of the population she personally finds repugnant.

I’d like to believe, though, that she simply thinks it won’t be an issue. She probably thinks that any effort to resist will be stopped by law enforcement and people like her will be kept all safe and sound…

…while they’re also bashing law enforcement as tyrannical jackbooted thugs.

Sure. That’s certainly a strategy.

Luckily, so far every anti-gun Democrat has seemingly tried to race to the extreme left on guns, leaving little doubt where candidates stand on guns. That’s likely to work out poorly in the general election where fewer people agree with those stances and many who do will disagree with them on other fundamental issues.

But Behar’s suggestion to hide their anti-gun intentions from the American people suggests that even Behar knows that such a position is unpopular at the very least. Why else try to hide it from the voters?