Texas Republican Threatens Beto O'Rourke's Life if He Tries to Take His AR-15

If Beto O’Rourke could be said to have had a decent showing in Thursday night’s Democratic primary debate, it’s almost certainly in large part to O’Rourke’s vow that if elected president, “hell yes” he would confiscate AR-15s and other weapons of war.

Suffice it to say, O’Rourke’s pledge managed to trigger some of the exact people who, based on their reactions, probably have no business owning military-grade firearms in the first place. Take, for instance, Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain, a self-proclaimed “conservative Republican who supports limited government, less regulation, increased transparency, the value of life, and traditional family values.”

For Cain, valuing both life and traditional family values evidently means threatening the life of a presidential candidate and former United States congressman, which he did shortly after O’Rourke’s remarks.

As O’Rourke noted after Cain’s threat, this is exactly the sort of “from my cold dead hands” gun-humping hysteria that proves how insane it is that people are allowed to own these high-powered rifles at all.

Cain, in a masterful example of what a total Texas asshole he is, responded by calling O’Rourke “a child.”

I should also mention that according to his House bio, Cain is currently a captain in the Texas State Guard, which I assume probably have some thoughts about whether their officers can and should threaten violence against presidential candidates. I have reached out to the guard for any comment on Cain’s remarks and to see whether they feel his threat warrants any disciplinary action; I will update this post if they respond.

In the meantime, however, O’Rourke’s camp has reportedly referred Cain’s tweet to the FBI.

Update, 12:31 p.m. ET: Speaking with CNN, Cain insisted his obvious threat was simply a folksy take on the expression “come and take it.” Cain also claimed that he was the real victim here, telling the network that “what this really shows is how, how dangerous some of this is that people want to try and spin somebody’s words in order to try and take their guns away. And Beto O’Rourke knew that. He knew exactly what it was, and he seized the day to try and make some news.”