Democrat senators currently pushing gun control laws worry presidential candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke torpedoed any chance of passage via his insistence on firearm confiscation.

Breitbart News reported that O’Rourke talked of confiscating firearms during the September 12, 2019, Democrat debate. He said, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.”

During an appearance on MSNBC the next morning, O’Rourke made clear that handing over AR-15s will be “mandatory” under his plan. Breitbart News reported that O’Rourke’s push was a game-changer, proving the left’s goal is gun seizure.

The Associated Press noted that Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb welcomed O’Rourke’s push, simply for the damage that it does to the gun control movement. Gottlieb said, “This is what their goal is. We’ve always said it, now they’re saying it. Now they’ve said it and we’re going to make them eat it.”

Democrat senators pushing gun control are not happy with O’Rourke’s push. Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) explicitly stated that he does not support the confiscatory push. CNN quoted Coons saying, “I don’t think a majority of the Senate or the country is going to embrace mandatory buybacks. We need to focus on what we can get done.”

Gun control Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) is also disgruntled by O’Rourke’s push.

Toomey tweeted:

I agree with @ChrisCoons. This is an awful and extreme idea. Thankfully, there’s not enough support in Congress to do it. But this rhetoric undermines and hurts bipartisan efforts to actually make progress on commonsense gun safety efforts, like expanding background checks. https://t.co/lRmy8SHc47 — Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) September 13, 2019

The National Shooting Sports Foundation reports there are 16 million-plus privately owned AR-15s in the U.S.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.