PBS News Hour: on Gun Control

Tom Steyer: Register young voters to push for gun reform now

Steve Bullock: Ban assault weapons

Bernie Sanders: Ban assault weapons; automatic background checks

• A gun-control advocate, Sanders would ban assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines or equipment that allow more than ten rounds to be fired at once.
• He supports universal background checks and voted for the Manchin-Toomey legislation expanding federal background checks.
• In early 2016, Sanders changed his position on a gun law that protects some gun manufacturers and sellers from civil lawsuits. Sanders supported the measure in 2005 while he was serving in the House of Representatives. In 2016, he co-sponsored a bill to repeal that law.
• In the House, Sanders also voted against the pro-gun-control Brady Bill, writing that he believes states, not the federal government, can handle waiting periods for handguns.
• He told student reporters from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that he voted no on the Brady Bill because his state preferred "automatic background checks" and not waiting periods.

Cory Booker: Require background checks; ban assault weapons

• Booker often cites gun violence in his own Newark neighborhood when pushing for stricter federal gun safety laws. He supports legislation to require background checks for all gun purchases and introduced legislation to ban high-capacity magazines and assault weapons.
• Booker previously sponsored legislation to ban bump stocks, devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into fully-automatic guns, which were used in the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.
• In 2000, as a city councilman in Newark, Booker supported banning all guns.
• By the time he was mayor a decade later, he admitted banning assault weapons would only prevent a "small percentage" of murders and called the gun debate "tiring."

Kirsten Gillibrand: Ban high-capacity magazines; close gun-show loophole

• Guns: Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Make background checks universal.
• Gillibrand would reinstate a ban on assault weapons as well as ban high-capacity magazines, which enable a weapon to fire dozens of rounds without reloading.
• She opposes the idea of a national concealed carry policy and favors a number of other restrictions, including closing the "gun show loophole," requiring background checks for all gun purchases, and increasing restrictions on domestic abusers.
• As a House member representing a rural upstate district in New York, Gillibrand held different views on gun control and received an A rating from the NRA.
• She has said she was wrong and representing an entire state that includes urban communities with more gun violence pushed her to support more gun control measures.

Tulsi Gabbard: Ban assault weapons; require universal background checks

Julian Castro: Ban assault weapons

• Gun control: Require universal background checks, ban assault weapons.
• A longtime gun control advocate, Castro has pushed for renewing the assault weapons ban, limiting high-capacity magazines and requiring background checks at gun shows.