--- title: Texas Lawmaker to Beto O'Rourke: 'My AR Is Ready for You' description: A Republican lawmaker in Texas is in the spotlight after tweeting a threatening message to Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke. canonical: https://time.com/5676937/beto-orourke-ar-15/ author: Josiah Bates article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-13T12:19:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:22:01.663Z article:section: Politics og:title: Texas Lawmaker to Beto O'Rourke: 'My AR Is Ready for You' og:description: O'Rourke is calling the message a death threat og:url: https://time.com/5676937/beto-orourke-ar-15/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b03ce17b9b5cd17/698a02db096a941c276a6f71/beto-orourke-ar15.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Beto O'Rourke AR-15 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Texas Lawmaker to Beto O'Rourke: 'My AR Is Ready for You' twitter:description: O'Rourke is calling the message a death threat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b03ce17b9b5cd17/698a02db096a941c276a6f71/beto-orourke-ar15.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Texas Lawmaker to Beto O'Rourke: 'My AR Is Ready for You' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Josiah Bates](https://time.com/author/josiah-bates/) ## Josiah Bates Josiah Bates is a criminal justice reporter and a former TIME staff writer. He currently works for The Trace. Sep 13, 2019 12:19 PM UTC  Democratic presidential hopeful former Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke waves as he arrives onstage for during the third Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019. Democratic presidential hopeful former Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke waves as he arrives onstage for during the third Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019. Frederic J. Brown—AFP/Getty Images by [Josiah Bates](https://time.com/author/josiah-bates/) ## Josiah Bates Josiah Bates is a criminal justice reporter and a former TIME staff writer. He currently works for The Trace. Sep 13, 2019 12:19 PM UTC A Republican lawmaker in Texas is in the spotlight after tweeting a threatening message to Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke following [Thursday night’s Democratic debate](https://time.com/5676708/september-democratic-debate-takeaways/). “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis,” Texas state representative Briscoe Cain wrote, using O’Rourke’s full given name. Cain’s message came after O’Rourke [pledged](https://time.com/5676620/beto-orourke-take-guns-ar15-ak47/) during the debate to take away weapons “designed to kill people on a battlefield.” He singled out the AK-47 and the AR-15, a weapon used by a number of recent mass shooters. O’Rourke has made gun control a major part of his platform after recent mass shootings in the Texas communities of [El Paso](https://time.com/5643110/el-paso-texas-mall-shooting/), [Odessa and Midland](https://time.com/5666249/mass-shooting-midland-odessa-texas-police/). “In Odessa, I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an AR-15, and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that AR-15 in Odessa and Midland, there weren’t enough ambulances to get to them in time,” O’Rourke said during the debate. “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, a former Texas congressman, responded to Cain’s message shortly after it was posted, calling it a “death threat.” Cain’s original tweet was removed by Twitter for violating the service’s rules. > [](https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1172359875093061632) Others on Twitter also accused Cain of making a violent threat against O’Rourke. > [](https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1172464857440014336) > [](https://twitter.com/TiffanyDCross/status/1172463837385285633) Briscoe has not backed down from the criticism, calling one person an idiot for saying that he threatened a presidential candidate. Cain also called O’Rourke “a child.” > [](https://twitter.com/BriscoeCain/status/1172364502530179072) O’Rourke’s campaign is now selling t-shirts with the caption, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.” > [](https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1172342680178716672) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5676937/beto-orourke-ar-15/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5676937/beto-orourke-ar-15/"},"headline":"Texas Lawmaker to Beto O'Rourke: 'My AR Is Ready for You'","datePublished":"2019-09-13T12:19:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T07:22:01.663Z","description":"O'Rourke is calling the message a death threat","url":"https://time.com/5676937/beto-orourke-ar-15/","keywords":["2020 Election","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b03ce17b9b5cd17/698a02db096a941c276a6f71/beto-orourke-ar15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Josiah Bates","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/josiah-bates/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b03ce17b9b5cd17/698a02db096a941c276a6f71/beto-orourke-ar15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beto O'Rourke AR-15","caption":"Beto O'Rourke AR-15","creditText":"Frederic J. 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