Thanks, Beto. We need to debate an assault-weapon buyback.

There is no more perilous — or important — political activity than moving the “Overton window” of what constitutes an acceptable policy proposal. Bernie Sanders did just that by championing Medicare-for-all, and now his plan to nationalize health care has gone from the progressive fringe of the Democratic Party to the mainstream. So did Donald Trump by championing an “America First” foreign policy, and now he has made isolationism and protectionism mainstream in the Republican Party for the first time since the 1930s.

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is trying to shift the terms of debate on gun control by calling for a mandatory buyback of assault rifles. In last week’s Democratic debate, he recounted the devastating impact of a “high-velocity round” fired by one of these weapons (“when it hits your body, [it] shreds everything inside”) and then proclaimed, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.”

Republicans immediately pounced. “The American people deserve to know this president, this vice president and these House Republicans will always stand for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” Vice President Pence thundered. A Republican state representative from the Houston area named Briscoe Cain even appeared to threaten O’Rourke by tweeting, “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis.”

While Republicans were predictably apoplectic, mainstream Democrats were nervous. Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) warned, “that clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations that try to scare people by saying, ‘Democrats are coming for your guns.’  ” Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg endorsed Coons’s criticism, suggesting reasonably enough that Democrats should focus on background checks, “red flag” laws and banning the sale of high-capacity magazines and new assault weapons — rather than trying to take away existing assault weapons.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/thanks-beto-we-need-to-debate-an-assault-weapon-buyback/2019/09/17/864d09a4-d964-11e9-a688-303693fb4b0b_story.html