Whenever politicians get around to talking about gun confiscation, red flag laws, and mandatory buybacks, it can be hard not to reflexively roll our eyes.

These bizarre and cringe-worthy ideas about the future of the Second Amendment are just silly on their face.  The left seems to believe that Americans will choose to obey the whims of public servants over the words of our Founding Fathers, as gifted to us through the Constitution.

Spoiler alert:  Not gonna happen.

The idea of American authorities going door to door to take guns away from Constitutionally-protected citizens is a frightening one, whether that authority by local law enforcement, the ATF, or even the military.  

Despite this grim outlook, 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke has gone full steam ahead in his hopes to enact a mandatory buyback of any “assault” style rifles out there in the United States.  When pressed by debate moderator Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night as to how he would be enforcing such a program, Beto stumbled mightily.

O’Rourke responded by explaining that he expects complains with the mandatory buybacks. He said, “I expect my fellow Americans to follow the law. The same way we enforce any provision, any law that we have right now, we don’t go door to door to do anything to enforce the law. I expect Republicans, Democrats, gun owners, non-gun owners alike, to follow the law.”

Cooper then followed up by asking what O’Rourke plans to do if Americans do not comply.

O’Rourke said, “If someone does not turn an AR-15 or an AK-47, one of these weapons of war, or brings it out in public and brandishes it, in an attempt to intimidate…then that weapon will be taken from them. If they persist, there will be other consequences from law enforcement.”

This non-answer drew some grumbling from around the debate stage, as a number of candidates attempted to chime in directly after Beto spoke.

Moderators moved on, hoping to give as many of the dozen candidates on stage as much speaking time as possible.