Most high-profile Democrats who have criticized Beto O’Rourke’s gun confiscation plan have done so from the perspective that they believe it’ll hurt the party in years to come, and that it’s undoable.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), however, is a different kind of Democrat with a different kind of perspective when it comes to the issue of gun rights. He was asked about O’Rourke’s gun control position on Wednesday and gave a response reminiscent of the late actor Charlton Heston’s “cold, dead hands” 2000 NRA convention speech:

Manchin told a Wall Street Journal reporter that the former Texas representative did not speak for all Democrats when vowing to complete mandatory buybacks for certain high-powered rifles.

“Beto’s one human being,” Manchin said, according to a Journal reporter. “He gave his own opinion, OK? I think it was very harmful to make it look like all the Democrats. I can tell you one thing: Beto O’Rourke’s not taking my guns away from me. You tell Beto that OK?”

However, Manchin’s office reportedly told NBC news the senator does not own an AR-style gun.

At last Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate, O’Rourke said “Hell yes” in response to ABC News debate moderator David Muir’s question about whether or not he was going to take away people’s guns if elected president:

MUIR: Some of the stage have suggested a voluntary buy-back for guns in this country. You have gone further. You said, quote, “Americans who own AR-15s and AK-47s will have to sell them to the government, all of them. You know that critics call this confiscation. Are you proposing taking away their guns and how would this work?

BETO O’ROURKE: I am, if it’s a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield. If the high impact, high velocity, when it hits your body, shreds everything inside of your body because it was designed to do that so you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers. When we see that being used against children and in Odessa, I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an AR-15 and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that AR-15 in Odessa, there weren’t enough ambulances to get to them in time. Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore.

President Donald Trump also lashed out at Beto Wednesday, noting on Twitter that “Dummy Beto’s” debate declaration on taking guns had “made it much harder to make a deal” in Congress on a compromise gun control bill by basically confirming what gun rights activists have been saying about Democrats for years: They’re coming for your guns.

——-
— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –