Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s strategy to curb gun violence is a jumbled patchwork of nonstarter policy proposals and red meat for the Democratic base, in case you were wondering how seriously she takes the issue.
The Massachusetts senator’s campaign team unveiled her plan this weekend in a blog post titled, “Protecting Our Communities from Gun Violence.”
“Columbine. Sandy Hook. Charleston. Pulse. Las Vegas. Parkland. Pittsburgh. Now El Paso. Dayton. These are just a few of the names etched into the American consciousness, synonymous with senseless loss and enduring grief,” it begins.
The plan adds, “In 2017, almost 40,000 people died from guns in the United States.”
For context, two-thirds of those deaths were suicides.
“My goal as President, and our goal as a society, will be to reduce that number by 80%. We might not know how to get all the way there yet. But we’ll start by implementing solutions that we believe will work,” Warren declares.
The post lists three specific courses of action the senator plans to take in order to hinder mass shootings. Warren says she will issue executive orders, eliminate the filibuster, and send Congress a bill loaded with strict gun control initiatives. The senator’s executive orders would require background checks for all firearm purchases, even those between nonfederally licensed, private individuals. Warren also says she will issue executive orders requiring all sellers to report multiple purchases to the same individual and that all sales be conducted with persons who are 21 years of age or older.
It is misleading, however, when Warren says, “We will bring the vast majority of private sales, including at gun shows and online, under the existing background check umbrella.” The problem with this sentence is that it implies that some federally licensed dealers are not required under certain circumstances to run customers through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. That is a myth. All federally licensed dealers are required by federal law to use the NICS on customers for any purchase. What Warren wants is for all private sales to be beholden to the same regulations required of federally licensed sellers.
Warren’s gun control proposal also promises that her administration will prosecute gun traffickers, revoke licenses for gun dealers “who break the rules,” and investigate the National Rifle Association “and its cronies.”
Certain states already have gun trafficking laws in place. The senator wants to transfer that responsibility to Washington, which currently does not have a federal trafficking statute on the books, by creating a new federal anti-trafficking law. Also, there are already laws in place for gun dealers “who break the rules.” Warren is saying merely that her administration will enforce the law.
Lastly, in case you were wondering what it even means to “investigate” the NRA, the senator’s blog post explains:
There is more in the senator’s blog post about cracking down on 3D guns, enforcing protections for the victims of domestic abuse, increasing taxes on gun manufacturers, and passing a new federal assault weapons ban. Warren also says she will ban “high-capacity ammunition magazines,” prohibit “accessories that make weapons more deadly, and that she will bar “anyone convicted of a hate crime from owning a gun.”
These are not all terrible suggestions. Some are even workable. The problem is that while Warren’s plan contains some realistic options, it too often strays into fantasy land, giving the distinct impression that she is interested more in whipping up support for her 2020 candidacy.
The senator promises, for example, to hold gun manufacturers “strictly liable for the harm they cause through a federal private right of action.” She says she will hold “gun industry CEOs personally accountable” and that she will “expand background checks via executive action.” Warren proposes a “federal licensing system,” the imposition of a “real waiting period,” and a cap on firearm purchases.
Aside from being unrealistic, the problem with many of these initiatives is that they will do nothing to stop shootings such as the ones we saw in El Paso or Charleston. Instead of being a lean list of pragmatic solutions, Warren’s plan is a smorgasbord of unworkable and unconstitutional initiatives, many of which will almost certainly be struck down or stalled by the courts.
Warren is smart enough to know this. This not the work of a serious stateswoman. It is a wishlist for the base. That bit about “investigating the NRA” is what gives it away.
(h/t Gabriel Malor)
