Twitter Had to Delete a Death Threat Against Beto O’Rourke … Made by a Texas State Representative

During last night’s Democratic debate, the issue of gun control came up and Beto O’Rourke, who is from El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were killed in a mass shooting last month, said he supported the banning and confiscation of assault-style weapons.

“Hell yes,” O’Rourke said. “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.”

Obviously, there are going to be a lot of people angry about a statement like that. Being from such a pro-gun/anti-gun-control state, though, means that some of the people with the most vitriol are essentially his colleagues.

Texas state Representative Briscoe Cain tweeted at Beto, saying, “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis,” using the former Congressman’s full name, presumably because Republicans love to make accusations that O’Rourke made the decision to adopt his childhood nickname in order to appeal to a Latino base a few decades before he ever took office. Such foresight!

Anyway, there are really only two ways to interpret Cain’s tweet. Maybe he’s saying “Yes, I agree! You should take my instrument of mass destruction because a weapon like that is unnecessary for anyone not engaged in wartime activities!”

Either that’s what he’s saying, or he’s threatening to use his assault-style weapon on O’Rourke. Which is how Beto (and every other thinking person) took it.

Cain responded by calling O’Rourke “a child.”

Twitter, however, seems to agree with O’Rourke. They removed the tweet for violating their terms of service.

This comes right after ABC aired a violent ad showing a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s face being set on fire and replaced with skulls and bodies from the Cambodian genocide. And all of this is during a summer that has been marked with violence from men who have spouted violent and racist rhetoric echoing that of Trump’s own words.

(via Mediaite, image: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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