Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke said he would institute a "mandatory buyback of every assault weapon in America."
O’Rourke made his comments in a column posted Thursday night by USA Today.
"On Aug. 3, my hometown of El Paso, Texas — one of the safest cities in America — was attacked in one of the deadliest mass shootings in our country's modern history," he said.
O'Rourke maintained the shooting could have been prevented.
"All countries have video games," he said. "All countries struggle with mental health. All countries deal with hatred. But only America has more guns than human beings — 390 million firearms in a country of 329 million people — which kill nearly 40,000 people every year."
He said some of the doctors treating the El Paso victims said they had not seen such "horrific wounds since they were deployed abroad in our armed forces."
"When the killer's mother heard he had ordered an 'AK'-type firearm, she wondered why her son, who was not enlisted in the military, needed a weapon like that," O'Rourke wrote. "She was asking on behalf of herself, on behalf of her son, and on behalf of our country.
"That's why, as president, I would institute a mandatory buyback of every assault weapon in America."
O'Rourke acknowledged some believe the nation is too divided to bring about that change.
And he added: "We need to stop making assumptions and writing one another off, because only by coming together and finding common ground can we finally meet this moment and start saving lives."
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