Texas gubernatorial candidate and failed presidential contender Beto O’Rourke is changing his tune on confiscating citizens’ AR-15s and other guns. O’Rourke made the thinly-veiled change of mind after polls showed him trailing behind Republican incumbent Greg Abbott.

Fox News reports:

“I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone,” O’Rourke saidto reporters in Tyler, Texas. “What I want to make sure that we do is defend the Second Amendment. I want to make sure that we protect our fellow Texans far better than we’re doing right now.”

The flip appears to be driven by the polling numbers, and comes just a few months after O’Rourke full-throatedly backed a mandatory buyback for AR-15s and other so-called assault weapons.

“Most of us understand the responsibility that comes with owning a firearm, and we will vigorously protect that Second Amendment right and also protect the lives of those around us,” he told The Texas Tribune, calling them weapons designed for the battlefield. “But I think most of us also understand that we should not have military-style weapons used against our fellow Texans. We have four of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history right here in Texas that took place over the last five years.”

The Texas Democrat made headlines in 2019 after saying, “Hell yes,” he would take people’s AR-15s away if elected president while gunning for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 2018, O’Rourke claimed he “stood by” the Second Amendment. The Democrat politicians repeated flip-flopping on gun issues comes because the Lone Star State has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the U.S., and the Second Amendment voters are some of the most active in the nation.