Senator Cory Booker. Politico/AFP/Getty.
Senator Cory Booker has rolled out a massive gun control plan that goes even further than most of the 2020 Democrats. Politico. The 14 part plan is one of the most aggressive of the 2020 candidates and is sure to face resistance in the event Booker is elected. The plan has the following elements:
1. A federal gun licencing plan that would require a background check, gun safety course, five year renewals and regular checks.
2. A total ban on standard capacity magazines, "assault weapons" and bump stocks (which are already illegal).
3. A ban on private sales of firearms.
4. Restrictions on bulk gun purchases
5. A limit of one handgun purchase a month
6. Allowing lawsuits against gun manufactures and dealers
7. Ending the "boyfriend loophole".
8. Provide funding for gun control research.
9. More funding for the ATF
10. Going after the NRA.
It is unclear how Cory Booker would ever be able to pass any such legislation or how it would survive a Supreme Court challenge.
My Comment:
It seems like Cory Booker is trying to out gun control Eric Swalwell. Though his plan is horrible it's not quite as bad as "let's nuke gun owners if they fight back against gun confiscation". Booker can't match Swalwell's rhetoric on this issue so it's surprising that he would go for this. Even Michael Bloomberg is not as extreme as Swalwell, but Booker is trying to give him a run for his money.
I think I know why Booker is trying to push hard on the gun control issue. With Biden running away with the nomination since he officially announced Booker is struggling to stand out from the pack. He doesn't have a natural constituency anymore with so much competition. Biden has the establishment locked up and Bernie Sanders has the economic leftists. That leaves the rest of the candidates trying to fight over the "woke" social justice leftists and the tiny gun control constituency. Booker has no other way to stand out so he's pushing hard on gun control.
As for Booker's ideas, none of them are in anyway acceptable. And it goes far beyond what most of the other candidates are saying. Booker's plan would essentially destroy the firearms industry putting thousands of people out of work. Allowing lawsuits against gun manufactures would put them all out of business, especially with gun control groups funding those lawsuits. Even the bigger companies would be bankrupted by legal costs. And the idea is just stupid, you don't sue car makers when someone decides to ram a bunch of pedestrians, so why would you sue gun makers for someone misusing their products?
A ban on magazines, "assault weapons" and bump stocks would also be stupid. For one thing bump stocks are already banned, even though nobody is complying with the new version of the law. Plus magazine size limits are likely to be ruled unconstitutional. None of these bans would do anything to stop crime, but they could spark a civil war.
He would also put major restrictions on what you could buy and what you couldn't. There is no reason to ban buying more than one handgun in a month. How does he know that I wouldn't need to buy more than one handgun? Plus there is no reason to stop people from buying bulk purchases of guns. It just seems like another attempt to just punish gun owners.
Thankfully, I think that Booker has almost no chance of ever getting what he wants. He has very little chance of being the candidate, let alone the President. In the unlikely event that he were to be elected, the GOP will still probably control the Senate and they would never agree to any of this. And SCOTUS would likely support any challenge to the law.
That being said, I do think this might be an effect of Eric Swalwell joining the race. Though Swalwell is an obscure figure with little chance of winning, I think he joined the race for this very reason. His candidacy is out there just to force the other candidates left on the issue of gun rights. It seems like his plot is working...
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