Long story short, Democrats want to take away stuff you legally bought and “give” you other “free” stuff by taking more of your money through taxes to pay for it. And they want you to think them generous and caring for doing it.

The “shock” moment of the third Democrat presidential debate came from Beto O'Rourke, who ranted about the dangers of certain semiautomatic rifles before thundering, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15!” Leftists have become more candid in recent years about their desire to confiscate legally purchased rifles with certain cosmetic features, though they usually couch that gun grab in terms of a “buyback.” How the government would buy back something it never sold in the first place is unclear except by defining it as confiscation. So should we thank Beto for his honesty?

On the one hand, this is a loudmouth, no-shot candidate desperately seeking attention with a confiscation demand he’s made more than once. On the other hand, his repeated push could be the strategic play of the Democrat National Committee to float an unpopular proposal through a bottom-tier candidate to bring in the party’s collective constituencies to the ultimate nominee’s fold. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and others have similarly spoken of confiscation in the past.

According to National Review, “Briscoe Cain, who represents the Houston area in the Texas state legislature, wrote ‘my AR is ready for you Robert Francis’ in a since deleted tweet sent Thursday night” in rebuttal to O'Rourke’s comments. Beto whined about that being “a death threat,” providing an example of why Cain “shouldn’t own an AR-15 — and neither should anyone else.”

Few are willing to say this, but what was Beto’s threat about confiscation except a death threat? What if American Patriots refuse to yield their legally purchased, Second Amendment-protected firearms to heavily armed government agents who knock down their doors to take them? Will those government agents say, “Ok, never mind; have a nice day”? Or will there be massive bloodshed?

And just like that, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15!” became the Republicans’ most effective option for a campaign ad.

As for the rest of the Democrat debate, it was pretty standard fare. Frontrunners Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders argued over how far left the party should go on Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and other leftist fever dreams. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Julián Castro, and O'Rourke vied to achieve some sort of breakout moment, primarily by offering more “free” stuff, sanctimoniously lecturing about how awful America is, or by saying outrageous things about President Donald Trump (have you heard he’s a “racist”?).

For choice quotes, see our Short Cuts. But we’ll highlight a final one here: “Anybody that does what [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro does is a vicious tyrant,” insisted Sanders, who also protested, “In terms of democratic socialism, to equate what goes on in Venezuela with what I believe is extremely unfair.” His protests notwithstanding, it’s not unfair. Sanders’s socialist salesmanship and his love affairs with China and the Soviet Union prove it. But you know what happened in Maduro’s socialist paradise of Venezuela? Gun confiscation.