Democrat presidential hopeful Eric Swalwell tried to walk back his statement about jailing gun owners who refuse to comply with a future firearms ban.

On April 14, 2019, CNN’s Jake Tapper noted Swalwell’s plan to mandate buybacks of “assault weapons” and criminally prosecute those who do not comply. Tapper asked Swalwell if criminal prosecution means Americans who held on to their guns would go to jail. Swalwell responded, “They would.”

Swalwell added that gun owners would be given an “alternative” choice of placing keeping their guns at “a hunting club or a shooting range,” but either way, the guns would no longer be in their possession.

He has been clear that he plans to use a forced buyback to take “assault weapons” away from everyone who possesses them. In fact, it has been one of his most prominent campaign promises:

I’m the only candidate that’s proposing we ban and buyback the 15 million assault weapons on our streets.@UNLVYoungDems pic.twitter.com/2sFaOU5wZD — Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) April 16, 2019

Despite these statements on sending non-compliant gun owners to jail and taking away whole categories of firearms, Swalwell claims he has no plans to “take guns from law-abiding gun owners.”

He tweeted:

NRA Twitter is losing its mind with “how is Swalwell going to take guns from law-abiding owners.” SPOILER: I’m not. I’m organizing with the Moms & students, and we’re going to CHANGE the law. Weapons of war will be no more. #BanandBuyBack #EndGunViolence — Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) April 16, 2019

Note that his attempt to dismiss concerns that he wants to “take guns from law-abiding gun owners” ends with the pledge to #BanandBuyBack. The plan to #BanandBuyback is the method used to take away guns in Australia and New Zealand.

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.