During the third Democratic presidential debate candidate Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) drew applause for his impassioned speech in response to a question about assault weapons, declaring “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,” O’Rourke added.
It didn’t take long for trolls to crawl out of their caves, with one Texas state legislator, State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R) responding to O’Rouke’s comments saying “My AR is ready for you.”
Now clearly, that is a threat, and O’Rourke and his campaign called out the tweet as such.
“This is a death threat,” the former Texas congressman snapped back. “Clearly, you shouldn’t own an AR-15 — and neither should anyone else.”
Of course, Cain didn’t get the seriousness of his words, instead quipping back, “You’re a child Robert Francis.”
The tweet with the AR-15 threat was later removed from his feed, listed as “no longer available” for violating the platform’s policies because you know, that’s what it was, the Daily Beast reports.
In the meantime, O’Rourke refuses to back down, continuing to tweet out on the issue and demanding stronger action.