Woman Confronts Beto O‘Rourke on Gun Confiscation: ’I’m Here to Say, Hell No You’re Not’

Democratic presidential candidate former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) speaks to the media as he visits the outside of a detention center for migrant children in Homestead, Fla., on Jun. 27, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A woman confronted Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke over his vow to ban AR-15s and AK-47s at a town hall in Colorado on Sept. 19.

O'Rourke, 46, made waves when he said, “Hell yes,” when asked at a recent 2020 debate if he would force Americans to give up guns they purchased.

The former representative from Texas was speaking in Aurora on Thursday when the microphone was given to a woman in the crowd to ask a question.

“I am here to say: Hell, no, you’re not,” Lauren Boebert said.

The crowd started making noise but O'Rourke told them to let the woman finish her question.

“I have four children, I am 5-foot-0, 100 pounds, I cannot really defend myself with a fist. ... I want to know how you’re going to legislate that because a criminal breaks the law, so all you’re going to do is restrict law-abiding citizens, like myself,” Boebert added.

Owner Lauren Boebert poses for a portrait at Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado on April 24, 2018. (Emily Kask/AFP/Getty Images)

Edward Wilks, owner of Tradesmen Gun Store and Pawnshop, helps Lauren Boebert with a firearm at his store in Rifle, Colorado on April 24, 2018. (Emily Kask/AFP/Getty Images)

She said that the people killed in an Aurora movie theater in 2012 “were there defenseless” and “had no way to defend themselves against a crazy shooter.”

“Self-defense is a right that we have that shall not be infringed in America,” she said.

O'Rourke didn’t directly respond to the question, instead saying that the violence in America is an anomaly when looking around the world.

“I refuse to accept that” people are inherently evil, O'Rourke said.

“This doesn’t happen in any other country. There are 329 million of us. There are 390 million guns. No other country has this kind of ratio. No other country allows its citizens to buy weapons that were designed for war,” he said, adding later: “The logic of your argument is, why shouldn’t we allow you to have a bazooka or drive a tank down the street?”

According to the Denver Post, Boebert drove three hours from Rifle to speak to O'Rourke.

Boebert owns a restaurant called Shooters Grill, where waiters and waitresses carry guns, and was carrying a Glock handgun while she spoke.

Asked after the rally if he knew that his vow to confiscate guns was provoking emotions across the country, O'Rourke told a reporter that he cares more “about the families who’ve lost a child, about the parents of a 17-month-old baby that was shot in the face. Those are the emotions that I care about.”