Cory Booker’s Gun
Control Plan Calls for National Licensing Program
By Matt Stevens
May 6, 2019
Senator Cory
Booker, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, unveiled a
14-part plan for gun control on Monday.CreditCreditScott McIntyre for The New
York Times
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey rolled out a broad plan
on Monday that seeks to combat gun violence through measures including a gun
licensing program and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Aspects of Mr. Booker’s 14-part plan are among the most
progressive gun-control measures suggested by a candidate seeking the
Democratic nomination for president, and are likely to face sharp criticism
from gun-rights advocates like the National Rifle Association.
“My plan to address gun violence is simple — we will make
it harder for people who should not have a gun to get one,” Mr. Booker said in
a statement. “I am sick and tired of hearing thoughts and
prayers for the communities that have been shattered by gun
violence.”
The most notable piece of Mr. Booker’s plan is the
proposed gun licensing program, which would enact minimum standards for gun
ownership nationwide. Under such a program, a person seeking to buy a gun would
need to apply for a license in much the same way one applies for a passport.
Mr. Booker’s campaign said the process would involve
submitting fingerprints and sitting for an interview, and would require
applicants to complete a certified gun safety course. Each applicant would also
undergo a federal background check before being issued a gun license, which
would be valid for up to five years.
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Other parts of the plan include banning bump stocks, which enable
semiautomatic weapons to fire faster; limiting bulk purchases of
firearms; and closing the loopholes that allow domestic abusers and people on
terrorist watch lists to obtain guns. And the plan calls for the I.R.S. to
investigate the N.R.A.’s tax-exempt status, an issue the New York attorney
general is also exploring, causing considerable turmoil among the
group’s leadership.
The N.R.A. did not respond to a request for comment on
Monday.
Daniel Webster, the director of the Center for Gun Policy
and Research at Johns Hopkins University, said gun control advocates and
politicians have long called for comprehensive background checks and an assault
weapons ban. But he said research
has shown that those policies, when implemented at the state level, have not
been nearly as effective at reducing gun homicides and suicides as gun
licensing programs for purchasers.
A
2018 study found that 63 percent of gun owners supported requiring a
person to obtain a license from local law enforcement before buying a gun;
support for gun licensing among people who do not own a gun was even higher.
“I’m glad to see Senator Booker look at the actual data
and show some political courage,” said Mr. Webster, who said he was among the
gun policy experts consulted by Mr. Booker’s staff.
“We’ve got a crisis here. And if you’re just trying to
say, ‘O.K., what’s the easiest political thing to do,’ you’re likely to aim low
and have minimal impact. So I salute Senator Booker for saying we’ve got a huge
problem, and you don’t solve huge problems with tiny changes.”
The renewed focus on gun violence comes just over a week
after a gunman opened
fire inside a synagogue in Poway, Calif., with an A.R. 15-style
weapon, and days after a man with a pistol walked into a classroom at the
University of North Carolina Charlotte and killed two
people.
Mr. Booker obliquely cited those shootings in announcing
his plan on Monday, calling gun violence in the United States an “epidemic.”
In the six-plus years since 26 people were killed at
Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., some states have been busy enacting
gun-control measures, including a handful of gun licensing laws like
the one Mr. Booker is proposing.
Still, America’s gun laws remain among the least
restrictive in the Western world, and several other Democratic
presidential candidates have also addressed the issue.
Senator Kamala Harris of California has pledged to
deal with gun violence through executive action that would, among
other things, close one of the loopholes targeted by Mr. Booker’s plan.
Representative Eric Swalwell of California has made gun
control a central focus of his campaign. And both former Vice
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont have
lengthy records grappling with gun safety.
Mr. Biden has
long supported stiffer gun laws, having introduced legislation as a
Delaware senator that sought to ban assault weapons; he later led a
gun-violence prevention task force as vice president. But critics have
highlighted his support of a
1994 crime bill that many Democrats have condemned for contributing
to mass incarceration, especially of people of color.
Mr. Sanders saw his record on
gun control come under scrutiny when he faced off with Hillary
Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. He was criticized
for, among other things, having
supported a 2005 bill that gave gun manufacturers legal immunity,
but he has since changed his position on that issue.
That bill, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,
is a specific target of Mr. Booker’s plan. In his announcement Monday, Mr.
Booker said that if elected president, he would repeal it.
“Senator Booker’s plan is bold and thoughtful,” said
Peter Ambler, the executive director of Giffords, the gun violence prevention
organization led by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords. He added that it
was a “positive sign” that presidential candidates were “coming to the table
with serious policy proposals to make our country safer.”
Mr. Booker has focused a significant portion of his
platform on a topic connected to gun control: criminal
justice reform. He and Ms. Harris seek to compete
with Mr. Biden for support from African-Americans, who are disproportionately
affected by gun violence and incarcerated at significantly higher rates than
white Americans.
Mr. Booker has often cited his
time as the mayor of Newark when discussing his firsthand experience
with those issues. In an
interview that aired Sunday on CNN, he drew on that experience
again, standing on a Newark street corner where he said a man who once lived
with him had been fatally shot by a gunman wielding an assault rifle.
Speaking about gun violence, he said, “I am going to come
at this like folks have never seen before.”
John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, an
advocacy organization that seeks to end gun violence, said he had seen a
“seismic shift” from past campaigns, when the issue of gun violence was
considered the “third rail” of American politics.
“Today what we’re seeing is people coming out muscularly
for gun safety,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “We’re early on in the 2020 cycle, and I
think you’re going to see more and more of this.”
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