Democratic Primary Debates and news: on Gun Control
Deval Patrick:
Rejected Ruby Ridge task force recommendations
A task force of 24 FBI and Justice Department officials compiled a 542-page report detailing federal misconduct and coverups and suggested criminal charges against FBI officials involved in Ruby Ridge. Patrick rejected the task force's recommendation,
ruling instead that the FBI sniper who killed Vicki Weaver had not used "excessive force" and did not intend to violate her civil rights. The Justice Department paid $3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit from the Weaver family.
Source: USA Today on 2019 Democratic primary
Nov 27, 2019
Mike Bloomberg:
Bloomberg group favors closing background check loopholes
Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety, which he helped found in 2014, has become a powerful voice in the battle over gun legislation.
The group has identified a number of issues it views as key to limiting gun violence, including closing loopholes around background checks and limiting illegal gun trafficking from states with weaker gun laws.
Source: CNBC's coverage of on 2019 Democratic primary
Nov 24, 2019
Tom Steyer:
I will declare gun violence a public health epidemic
I will declare gun violence a public health epidemic and dedicate time and resources to develop a cure. America's children are suffering from the threat of mass killings and fear of active shooters. Communities suffer from gun violence in many forms:
homicides, domestic violence, suicides, and police brutality. The American people agree on how we should solve this problem. They want Washington to act, have pleaded with their representatives and have begged them to do something -
Source: USA Today on 2019 Democratic primary
Nov 7, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Much work to enact measures that vast majority supports
Q: Why wouldn't you support mandatory buybacks of assault weapons? BUTTIGIEG: I think we have got a lot of work to do right now on the basics, universal background checks, red flag laws, a ban on new sales of these assault weapons and
high-capacity magazines, things that the majority, in many cases, the vast majority, of Americans support, that still haven't got done. I think we have got some fundamentals we have got to take care of. And
Source: CNN State of the Union interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 18, 2019
Andrew Yang:
Would push for "personalized" guns, subsidize upgrading
Yang would push for Americans to upgrade their firearms to "personalized" guns. These types of firearms use technology such as fingerprint readers or other biometric sensors to prevent unauthorized users from firing them. "If we can convince
Americans that personalized guns are a good idea then ... if the child gets ahold of the gun then they can't do anything with it," he said. "One of my proposals is to help gun owners upgrade their guns to personalized guns free of charge."
Source: Huffington Post on 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 11, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
We should have a national gun licensing program
Q: You were asked whether you supported a plan for federal gun licensing. You said it might go too far. After the El Paso and Dayton massacres do you feel the same way?O'ROURKE: We should do it.
We should have a national licensing program in this country. I also said I want to learn more. I have. This makes sense.
We know that, in those states that have adopted these licenses, or have adopted universal background checks, or have stopped the sales of weapons of war, that we are saving lives.
So let's adopt these solutions nationally and make sure that, without taking anyone's Second Amendment rights away, that we save the lives of our fellow Americans.
Source: CNN State of the Union interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 11, 2019
Cory Booker:
Yes on red flag law, but nowhere near enough
Q: Would you support a red flag law as a stand-alone bill? Isn't something better than nothing? BOOKER: Red flag laws, yes, they're important, but they're nowhere near enough to stop these rising levels of mass shootings. We have to do more.
The American public should demand more. And, frankly, things like background checks are overwhelmingly supported by gun owners. The fact that we're not doing that is a failure of leadership.
Source: CNN State of the Union interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 11, 2019
Mike Bloomberg:
Gun laws effective but no one law will stop everything
No one law is going to stop everything, but there's just no question when you put in background checks, suicides with guns and murder rates go down. When you get rid of assault weapons you stop the mass murders. These are not public health things.
This is too much of access to guns and particularly to assault weapons, which were designed to kill the maximum number of people as quickly as possible, and as gruesomely as you could possibly do it.
Source: CBS Face the Nation interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 11, 2019
Julian Castro:
Whole slew of gun measures most Americans support
We need to do a whole slew of things, from ensuring that we have universal background checks, to limiting the capacity of magazines, to ensuring that we have red flag laws out there that are able to catch individuals who may represent a danger to
themselves or to other people. We also need a renewed weapons ban, so that these semiautomatic weapons, these weapons of war, are not out there on the streets. And most Americans, I believe, support these kinds of measures
Source: CNN State of the Union interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 4, 2019
Julian Castro:
Yes on gun licensing, but also red flag laws
Q: Do you support gun licensing? CASTRO: I do think that we have to strengthen our laws when it comes to knowing who has these guns, when they're sold, who do they change hands into. But we also have to combine that with
things like red flag laws that give courts the ability to take guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them in the first place, people who represent a danger to themselves or to somebody else.
Source: CNN State of the Union interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 4, 2019
Tom Steyer:
Sympathy for gun control measures
Guns: Steyer has founded organizations have worked closely, at times, with anti-Second Amendment organizations. He is largely seen as sympathetic to gun control initiatives.
Steyer has a very thin public record of commenting on legal and judicial issues. Steyer has suggested sympathy for gun control measures that would undermine Americans' Second Amendment rights
Source: Josh Hammer, The Daily Wire, on 2019 Democratic primary
Jul 12, 2019
Tom Steyer:
Register young voters to push for gun reform now
On gun violence, NextGen America partnered with Everytown For Gun Safety to organize a voter drive for high school students following the 2018 shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in
Florida. "If [Trump] won't enact the kind of reform necessary to protect our children, that's just another reason he's got to go," Steyer said in a Facebook announcement at the time, calling for young voters to push for "gun reform now."
Source: PBS News Hour 2019 coverage of 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 10, 2019
Page last updated: Mar 14, 2021