Beto O`Rourke in The New York Times 2019 "Meet the Candidates" series

On Gun Control: We need to stop listening to NRA and gun lobby

• Beto O'Rourke, Former congressman from Texas: "In an ideal world, we would listen to people instead of political action committees and the gun lobby and the NRA."
• John Hickenlooper, Former governor of Colorado: "Study after study shows that having a handgun, in most cases, makes you less safe, not more."
• Juli n Castro, Former housing secretary: "In an ideal world, people would not own handguns."
• Cory Booker, Senator from New Jersey: "As president of the United States, I'm going to bring a fight to this problem like folks have never seen before."
• Kamala Harris, Senator from California: "We need to be practical on this. We need to pass smart gun safety laws."
• Bill de Blasio, NYC Mayor: "In the ideal world, gun ownership would be treated very, very differently."

On Energy & Oil: Leverage carbon pricing; use market against climate change

O'Rourke: Yes. We must reassert our international leadership on this issue before it's too late. We need to build on the Paris climate agreement to achieve even bolder action on climate. Going back to 2015 is not enough. There's a discount, economically and politically, on anything that's decades down the road. So let's not waste time in getting moving fast in the right direction again.

Q: Do you support a federal carbon tax?

O'Rourke: We should leverage carbon pricing and the market in service of our ability to meet this challenge. There are a number of ways you can support pricing carbon into the market: You can do that through standards, the tax code, research and reinvestment. We need transparent, science-based, science-driven carbon pricing to guide our decisions as a democracy, strengthen our communities, support our workers, and unleash a robust market response to climate change.

On Technology: Invest in green research via national labs & universities

O'Rourke: We would invest in more research through our national labs, universities and incubators and in the scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, the women and men who will do the work day in and day out. Not only must we emit less greenhouse gases, we must plant things that absorb greenhouse gases, and give our farmers a better harvest, and invest in the technologies to allow us to claim some that are in the air now. We must invent and improve our grid's ability to save, store and then sell electricity from turbines and panels throughout the day--no matter where the sun is, at a given time, or whether the wind is blowing. We can build with steel and cement that's better for our air; ship and haul cargo to far-away places with less or different fuel; reconfigure the last mile of energy and transportation in how it functions."