While an eventual nomination is unlikely, U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has embraced eroding Second Amendment rights as his 2020 presidential campaign’s primary platform. And he is getting a lot of publicity for pushing policies he says are designed to combat gun violence and suicide by firearms.
Those policies, ultimately are designed to remove firearms from law-abiding citizens and make it nearly impossible for firearm manufacturers to survive frivolous lawsuits from victims of violent crimes in which firearms were used.
Because the mainstream media hates the Second Amendment, Booker’s anti-gun rhetoric is getting a great deal of media coverage. That means his radical gun policies could be adopted in some way by the eventual nominee, and we could see the 2020 election hinging on people’s support or disdain for the Second Amendment and firearms in general.
One of Booker’s most outlandish claims recently brought massive scrutiny, but hints at the political tac anti-gun liberals are likely to push in the next couple years. Booker recently opined that firearms are less regulated than toy guns in the United States. He claims toy guns are subject to federal safety regulations, but firearms are not.
Booker says toy guns are much safer today than a half century ago thanks to federal oversight provided via consumer product safety regulations. Those same regulations, Booker says, do not apply to firearms, which makes them less regulated than kids toy guns.
Booker’s notion falls flat upon scrutiny. Federal, state and local laws provide ample regulation of firearms, including the types we can own.
It wasn’t too long ago, we could not buy rifles that had pistol grips and could accept high-capacity magazines. Usually, that means an AR-15 or similar military-style firearms capable of accepting a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
Thankfully, thus far, that does not mean a perfectly ideal firearm, like the Ruger Mini 14, which has a conventional stock without the pistol grip that liberals claim are so scary and intimidating. The Mini 14, does, though, accept high-capacity magazines, which Booker and other liberals do not want in public hands.
Booker claims, due to what he claims is a lack of federal oversight, firearms manufacturers have no real incentive to make their firearms safer. Booker wants the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to require safety measures on firearms. He wants features like “smart grips” that detect when the lawful owner has it and only functions when in the hands of the lawful owner.
Booker also wants the federal government to repeal the national law that shields manufacturers of products from being sued by victims when those products are used in criminal acts. The idea is for bystanders and others to jam up firearms manufacturers with lawsuits that, eventually, would bankrupt the gunmakers or otherwise force them out of the gun business.
Such laws, though, could backfire greatly on consumers and jam up federal and state courts with lengthy lawsuits against industries like car manufacturers, kitchen cutlery, and others whenever someone is hurt or killed in an accident involving their product.
Booker also proposes a particularly heinous plan to train health care providers to asses potential “suicide risk,” as well as a potential risk to cause harm to others, to prevent law-abiding citizens from obtaining firearms.
He even favors confiscating firearms from citizens who have committed no crimes and made no threats against others, simply because someone claims that person might have suicidal thoughts or possibly be a threat to others.
Such laws at the local level already have seen innocent gun owners killed when local authorities come to remove their firearms due strictly to one person’s suspicion.
If you have a medical doctor, psychiatrist or other health care professional who holds a personal dislike for firearms and firearm owners by extension, you can bet your right to own and buy firearms would be compromised and possibly outright violated.
If Booker were to become President with a Dem-controlled Congress, it is safe to wager bills eroding Second Amendment rights will become a central piece of his platform.
It likely will under whomever eventually secures the Dem nomination for President. Democrats know the vast majority of liberals hate firearms and the Second Amendment.
They also believe a sizeable portion of independents also dislike firearms and the Second Amendment. That likely will result in a presidential campaign that makes firearms and erosion of the Second Amendment a central focus of next year’s election, whether or not Booker is in it.
