Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke told podcast host Jon Favreau that he supports the idea of making gun licensing and mandatory buybacks part of the conversation revolving around the El Paso and Dayton shootings.

Favreau commented on gun licensing and mandatory buybacks in Australia and asked if O’Rourke would support them as president?

O’Rourke responded, “Yes. And I’m open to them right now as a candidate.”

He continued:

It absolutely has to be part of the conversation. And at the end of the day, if it’s going to save lives, it it’s going to prevent the kinds of tragedies that we saw in El Paso, Gilroy, and Dayton, or this weekend in Chicago or allover this country on a daily basis, then let’s move forward and do it.

O’Rourke did not mention that Illinois requires that gun owners be licensed, yet Chicago gun crime numbers are through the roof weekend after weekend. O’Rourke also left out the fact that California requires all would-be gun owners to secure a firearm safety certificate — much like getting a license — from the state before being allowed to buy a gun. Yet the July 28, 2019, Gilroy Garlic Festival attack; the April 27, 2019, Poway Synagogue attack; the November 7, 2018, Borderline Bar & Grill attack; and so many others occurred without any problem.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) made mandatory buybacks the central issue in his campaign for the Democrat nomination then dropped out of the race after 90 days.

However, Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur notes that O’Rourke is all for gun licensing and mandatory buybacks and “that makes him the most prominent Democrat presidential candidate favoring that idea.”

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.