Cory Booker Wants Nationalized Gun Licensing, One-Gun-a-Month, Universal Background Checks

in Authors, Current Events, Jordan Michaels, This Week
Cory Booker Wants Nationalized Gun Licensing, One-Gun-a-Month, Universal Background Checks
(Photo: Cory Booker Facebook)

Cory Booker is having another Spartacus moment.

The New Jersey Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate, most famous for comparing himself to Spartacus during the Senate hearings to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, announced this week a sweeping, 15-point gun control platform that the New York Times called the “most progressive” of any candidate to date.

The real Spartacus, who took up arms against a tyrannical Roman government, would not approve.  

Among other items on Booker’s “Plan to End the Gun Violence Epidemic,” the senator includes a proposal to institute a national gun licensing program similar to state programs that license drivers to operate vehicles.

“Just as a driver’s license demonstrates a person’s eligibility and proficiency to drive a car, a gun license demonstrates that a person is eligible and can meet certain basic safety and training standards necessary to own a gun,” Booker says.

SEE ALSO: Democrats Propose Nationwide 10+ Round Magazine Ban

Individuals would be required to seek a gun license at a local office by submitting fingerprints, providing basic background information, and demonstrating completion of a certified gun safety course. Once the FBI gives their approval, the license would allow owners to “freely purchase and own firearms” for five years. Once those five years expire, the gun owner would have to renew the license.

Booker’s licensing program represents the only significant departure from the gun control proposals of other Democratic presidential candidates, and it’s received the majority of the criticism from gun rights groups.

“With this proposal, Booker isn’t just one of those anti-gun politicians who claims to ‘support the Second Amendment…but’,” said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. “He’s literally throwing a constitutionally-enumerated right into the trash, and he knows it. For a person hoping to be elected to the highest office in the land to advocate such an outrageous proposal isn’t just disappointing, it is disturbing.”

Booker’s plan calls for anti-gun mainstay policies like handgun microstamping, ending the PLCAA, banning “assault weapons” and “high capacity” magazines, supporting red flag laws, and attacking the NRA.

But Spartacus’s proposal also indicates a serious, though unsurprising, ignorance of existing gun law.

For example, despite the fact that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms recently banned the sale and possession of bump stocks, Booker calls for their prohibition along with AR-15s and 30-round magazines.

SEE ALSO: Kamala Harris Vows Executive Action to Force Universal Background Checks

It’s also unclear how Booker’s licensing program would interact with his support for universal background checks. If every gun owner is required to obtain a federal license to own a firearm, why would they also need to pass a background check for every gun purchase?

Finally, Booker’s support of a one-gun-a-month mandate reveals his ignorance of the history of gun control attempts. That policy was implemented in South Carolina and Virginia, but it failed to prevent crime and was later repealed. What’s more, a similar law in Washington, D.C., was struck down by a federal appeals court in 2015.

“Booker’s brainstorm is nothing more than a combination of every pie-in-the-sky idea on the gun control wish list,” Gottlieb summarizes. “While his plan is disturbing, what is even more alarming is that not one other Democrat now in the race denounced the plan. If they all agree with Booker, they need to admit it now so voters realize they are all willing to trample on the Bill of Rights.”

The good news for gun owners is that Booker is unlikely to realize his Spartacus dreams. The Senator consistently ranks in the second tier of Democratic presidential candidates, garnering between 2 and 3 percent of the vote, according to most recent polling data.

Still, as President Trump proved in 2016, candidates can outperform polls, and there’s still over a year before the Democratic primary. Booker’s aggressive gun control platform could be exactly what he needs to catapult him into the top tier of candidates and give Uncle Joe a run for his money.

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About the author: Jordan Michaels has been reviewing firearm-related products for over six years and enjoying them for much longer. With family in Canada, he’s seen first hand how quickly the right to self-defense can be stripped from law-abiding citizens. He escaped that statist paradise at a young age, married a sixth-generation Texan, and currently lives in Tyler. Got a hot tip? Send him an email at [email protected].

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  • Lloyd Elledge June 18, 2021, 1:31 pm

    These people define Marxism no matter how they try to paint this unconstitutional BS. Guns were only made to kill people? Good God! What a blithering idiot. More and more guns are used for personal protection from gangs and minorities. If the wench hasn’t noticed, a very large number of new gun purchases have been made by women, both black and white. Just another Liberal fool lying and ignoring the facts. If she’s even bright enough to see them.

  • Kent March 13, 2020, 7:47 am

    Wow just another idiot who thinks he has the answer. Get out of your ivory tower and come out in the real world. The part that’s funny do you think I need a fire arm to take your ass out? Force recon. Semper Fi.

  • Manosteel January 31, 2020, 5:15 pm

    Cory Booger ans Camela Harris are out of the picture because no one wants them! Worry more about Creepy Joe, Pokinhontas, and Buttgag.They want the same gun laws passed!

  • Neil Schmidt December 1, 2019, 9:06 am

    Booker is just another fool who thinks that if more and more gun laws are passed, the use of guns by criminals will just magically *poof* disappear.

  • ES May 13, 2019, 11:22 pm

    Easy to make comments such as his when you and you’re family have Secret Service guarding you and your family.

  • Glenn61 May 10, 2019, 8:22 pm

    IT’S TOO LAT TO RE-ENACT THE CLINTON ERA ASSAULT STYLE RIFLES AND MAGAZINE BAN,, IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD IDEA, BUY ONLY IF THE FILTHY SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS WOULD HAVE WRITTEN IN A SPORTING RIFLE AND 10 ROUND GUARANTEE FOR LAW ABIDING AMERICANS…

    BECAUSE THE LEFT WILL NOT SET FORTH ANY GUN RIGHTS GUARANTEED, JUST LIMITS TO BE TIGHTENED, THEIR GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION ID FVCKIN USELESS…. !!

  • J Davis May 10, 2019, 4:44 pm

    WHO ?

  • BigDawg May 10, 2019, 3:44 pm

    The last time I checked, operating a vehicle was a privilege and not a right and owning a Gun was a right, not a privilege. The argument that a license is required to drive is a spurious one comparing lemons to apples. But, if Elon Musk and the CEO of Ford, Jim Hackett, have anything to say about it, no one will have the privilege of driving after autonomous vehicles take over the roads.

  • Winston May 10, 2019, 11:20 am

    Booker is another black Establishment anti-white bigot who calls for white people to be disarmed. He is a maggot.

  • Mike May 10, 2019, 9:33 am

    Hey, Booker! Sign me up for the Gun of the Month Club! Should be interesting to see what you find appropriate for home defense, perhaps low volume water guns, single shot only or perhaps rubber band guns with rubber bands not to exceed 3mm in width nor 24mm in length. This should be interesting to get a Spartacus insight.

    • chuck May 10, 2019, 10:40 am

      Mike I like the “Gun of the month club” especially if we are going to get free money from the dems if we don’t want to work. Sign me up.

    • Manosteel January 31, 2020, 5:19 pm

      Maybe add to the list golf clubs, Coke bottles and broom!

  • Big John May 10, 2019, 8:29 am

    Cuck Forey Booker

    • D.J. May 10, 2019, 7:24 pm

      Mr. Booker would have to stand on his Mother’s shoulders,
      just to kiss the ass of Spartacus .

  • Sam May 10, 2019, 8:15 am

    Last time I checked, it was the 2nd amendment demonstrates my God given right to own as many guns of any variety as my heart desires. I respectfully ask your tyrannical ass to f$&@ off back to the sesspool you supposedly represent. These idiot can’t figure out that they are the reason the founders wanted us to stay armed.

  • Frank S. May 10, 2019, 7:52 am

    It’s hard to argue with a requirement for “basic safety and training” to own a firearm. I’m just afraid that the government would continually use that requirement to up the training requirements to make it increasingly difficult to own a firearm. If the rules were applied similar to a driver’s license it wouldn’t be a big deal for MOST people. Many states require a hunter’s safety course, which includes basic firearms (long gun) safety, to obtain a hunting license. You already have to pass a safety course for a concealed carry permit in most states as well. If that’s the standard, and it would stay that way, I don’t see a problem. Many countries don’t allow parents to teach their kids to drive — or rather they require a formal driving course before issuing a driver’s license. I’m not sure the federal government should be in charge of issuing such a license, but maybe each state. That gives us a bit more freedom and protection from draconian rules…

    • perlcat May 10, 2019, 10:00 am

      As much as I would prefer that people know what they are doing when they own or handle a firearm (one trip to a gun shop to see an idiot try out their wares will scare the bejesus out of anybody), the fed and the state cannot be trusted to fairly evaluate this. They have been known to show favoritism (Hollywood loons and people that pay money to their local politicians getting passes) and arbitraryness (you can’t have a gun because you support what they’ve just deemed a “hate group” like the NRA). They also often, just as above, adopt insane policies and laws to pander to the lowest common denominatorcrat.

      It is possible to simply require all firearm owners to possess insurance, and let the market sort out who has taken a firearms handling class, but even that is severely flawed because of the same old problem: People that disobey laws are not going to obey this one either, forcing the law abiding to subsidize their crimes, which is an injustice, and the government cannot be trusted to not manipulate insurance, being as insurance is a highly regulated business, and it would be easy for them to say that due to your particular risk profile, the underwriters say you’re paying $5,000 a month for the privilege.

      Face it, this would be simply another law making something that is already illegal more illegal (illegaler?) in a sleazy attempt to get votes from the ignorant and the stupid, a Democrat specialty. The simple fact is that unregulated gun ownership is the canary in the coal mine showing how free we are and how safe we are from our government — the poor bird is already gagging and choking, I don’t think we need to play their stupid game when we already know there is only one rule: gun owners lose.

    • Mike R. May 10, 2019, 5:12 pm

      Frank, requiring gun owners to take a gun safety course before owning a gun, is like requiring all drivers to take a drivers safety class. Neither one will necessarily make you safer. Plus, driving a car is a privilege, not a right, like gun ownership. It might be a good idea before owning a firearm, but it certainly should not be required. See 2nd Amendment for that.

    • Rndy May 11, 2019, 11:08 am

      We haven’t needed any so called training for 228 yrs why do we need it now!!!!
      Just another why to infringe!!
      I do however believe in a safety course provided by a private entity and not the government .

  • IPDAILY May 10, 2019, 7:49 am

    New Jersey already has some of the most restrictive gun control in the country. That still doesn’t stop the murder by gun in Camden, Trenton, or any of the other cities in the state. Mr. Booker is an asspirate who can’t control gun violence in one of the most anti-gun states.What makes him think he knows whats best for anyone else. While Mayor of Trenton the murder rates in his city continued to lead the state.

  • Sean May 10, 2019, 7:26 am

    Who is this clown ??????

  • J Leo May 7, 2019, 11:27 pm

    These are the current gun policies in the State of California 🙂

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