I’m not here to repeal the Second Amendment. I’m not here to take away your guns.

That was Hillary Clinton during her acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention just a little over three years ago. Clinton wanted to make it absolutely clear that neither she nor anyone else in the Democratic Party wanted to take your guns away. Democrats dismissed such concerns as “a fear tactic of the right meant to scare people.”

Fast-forward to Thursday night’s Democrat debate.

Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15!

That was Beto O'Rourke during Thursday night’s debate boldly going where Hillary dared not. As one commentator put it, “A Democrat candidate is promising to rob you of your Second Amendment rights.”

Extreme forms of gun confiscation now appear to be the default position of the Democrat Party. In addition to O'Rourke’s plans, Cory Booker wants registration for gun owners. 

This isn’t surprising. The socialist left is attacking the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

There are at least 15 million AR-15s in the United States. Anyone evil enough to go into a shopping center to kill dozens of people is not going to give Beto their gun. Anyone willing to give up their gun because the law requires it is not going to commit a mass shooting. 

All the left’s gun-grabbing will accomplish is the disarming of law-abiding Americans.

Other ideas expressed Thursday night were just as unrealistic. There were numerous proposals offered that would cost massive amounts of money and result in complete government control of your life.

I’m glad the Trump campaign flew a banner over the debate hall warning that socialism would kill the economy. Too bad it couldn’t post the banner inside the hall so the socialist audience could see it.

For three long hours, I heard almost nothing about job creation and economic growth. But I heard plenty of attacks against industries that employ millions of American workers.

Is This Biden’s Best?

What about Joe Biden?

He began the debate as the front-runner for the nomination, and I believe he held his own. His energy level was up Thursday night. Surprisingly, I don’t believe any of the other candidates succeeded in landing a serious blow against him.

Polls suggest he’s the strongest candidate to take on Trump. But in trying to win the nomination of a party that has embraced socialism, he has said many things that will make him a weaker candidate next year.

Julian Castro zeroed in on what will be an ongoing issue for Biden — his age and mental faculties. Bernie Sanders didn’t do it himself, but his surrogate Linda Sarsour has questioned Biden’s mental health. This issue won’t go away anytime soon.

He recently got all his facts wrong about a heroic soldier. 

He claimed to oppose the Iraq war “as soon as it began.”

He said Thursday night that the Obama administration “didn’t lock illegal immigrants up in cages.” He’s either lying or he doesn’t remember.

But that’s not all.

He also said during Thursday night’s debate, “Nobody should be in jail for a nonviolent crime.”

Really, Joe? Not Bernie Madoff? Not any of those Wall Street bankers that the left believes should be in jail for tanking the economy? Maybe this was Biden’s way of signaling to Brennan, Comey, and McCabe that they will have nothing to worry about if he’s elected.

And in response to a question about his sensitivity to racial issues, Biden rambled on and on, eventually suggesting to parents, “Make sure you have the record player on at night.”

Thanks for the advice, Uncle Joe. Sure you don’t want to crank up the phonograph while you’re at it?

The so-called “party of youth” has three front-runners who if elected would be 79 (Warren), 85 (Biden), and 87 (Sanders) after two terms in office.