White House Hopeful Beto O’rourke Calls For Gun Control During Nh Trip

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire — Though the newly declared presidential contender remains largely thin on policy talk, Beto O’Rourke on Thursday expressed support for universal background checks and an end to the sale of assault-style rifles to civilians. O’Rourke’s proclamation during a stump in downtown Portsmouth followed the announcement by New Zealand’s prime minister that the country will ban such weapons after the shooting deaths of 50 in two mosques last week. “We have no business selling these weapons of war into our communities, unless we expect this kind of carnage we saw in New Zealand,” he said, while referencing the countless massacres on United States soil in churches, at concerts and other public places. [Cory Booker visits NH in preview for 2020] O’Rourke added that gun deaths of people of color are “so numbingly common they don’t even make the news.” O’Rourke’s stop at Popovers On The Square kicked off the third and final day of his 10-county road trip across New Hampshire.