HOME / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

NRA warns Biden will confiscate AR-15s if he wins, Internet says 'assault weapons are not for streets'

NRA in their latest tweet wrote, 'If Joe Biden wins – Mike Bloomberg wins – and Beto O'Rourke will be knocking on your door for your AR-15'

Presidential candidate Joe Biden and the National Rifle Association (NRA) have never been on the same page. A week or so back, Biden had tweeted, "26 years ago today, the Senate passed 10-year bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — it was an effort I was proud to champion. These bans saved lives, and Congress should have never let them expire. As president, I'll take on the @NRA and we’ll ban them once again." Biden’s election campaign also has a detailed gun control plan. Now, NRA in their latest tweet wrote: “If Joe Biden wins – Mike Bloomberg wins – and Beto O'Rourke will be knocking on your door for your AR-15.”

The reference to politician Beto O’Rourke was a reference to comments made by him when he was campaigning for 2020 Presidential elections, before opting out later. According to a report by Newsweek, at the third Democratic presidential debate, O’Rourke had said, “Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, we're not going to allow it to be used on fellow Americans anymore.” The report states that he had later clarified that gun owners would only be “compelled” to hand over their guns as a last resort -- with lawful gun owners being offered compensation to turn them in voluntarily, something which according to him most would do in the event of such a law.

According to a Forbes report in August, Biden had stated that, if elected, he would hand over gun confiscation duties to O’Rourke. In July, Huff Post had reported that the NRA had tweeted about the AR-15 military-style rifle being an “everyday gun for everyday citizens”, which had irked a lot of people on social media. Their recent tweet also generated a lot of reactions.

One user quote-tweeted and asked, “Why you need AR-15, Comrade?” A user joked, “Oh my god, are you serious??? I would be thrilled if Beto knocked on my door!!! I'd invite him in for a beer. He's awesome!! @BetoORourke  feel free to come visit any time!” Another said, “Good because citizens have no legitimate need for military grade weapons. Nobody wants to take away your guns. ONLY your weapons of mass destruction. That's what an AR-15 is. You don't use them for any other reason except to kill mass amounts of people. Now go rob your donors.!!!” One commented, “Second amendment is fine, why own a AR-15..... assault weapons are for the military not for our streets.”  One said, “I am rather to give up my AR-15 than give up our democracy, freedoms and live in dictatorship.”

Recently, NRA’s former second-in-command Joshua L Powell, who was fired in January, as reported by The New York Times, in his book ‘Inside the NRA: A Tell-All Account of Corruption, Greed, and Paranoia Within the Most Powerful Political Group in America’, called for universal background checks and so-called red flag laws. He took on the organization in his book and claimed that it is more focused on money and internal plotting than the Second Amendment.