Booker challenges U.S. on gun crimes
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., called Wednesday for a national crusade against gun violence and a moral reckoning with the strains of white supremacy “ingrained in our politics since our founding.”
Standing in the sanctuary of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one floor above the site of the 2015 attack by a white supremacist who murdered nine black people, Booker said the present moment amounts to a national crisis in which Americans must choose sides and confront their own past.
“There is no neutrality in this fight,” he said. “You are either an agent of justice or you are contributing to the problem.”
Though his speech did not mention President Donald Trump by name, Booker laid responsibility for the rise in hate crimes with the occupant of “the highest office in our land.” The hatred that motivated a racist gunman in Texas to kill 22 people, Booker said, “was sowed by those who spoke the same words the El Paso murderer did: warning of an ‘invasion.”’
The Democratic presidential candidates have been releasing new gun-control plans and embracing proposals to buy back military-style weapons and ammunition after three high-profile mass shootings, including one in Dayton on Sunday, killed 33 people last week.
Most have routinely called for requiring background checks on all firearm purchases, banning bump stock devices that mimic automatic gunfire and passing “red flag” laws allowing a judge to order guns to be taken from someone deemed to be threat. Almost all Booker say they want to reinstate the 1994 ban on assault weapons.
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’rourke said he would be open to a mandatory buyback of guns. That’s something only California Rep. Eric Swalwell had embraced before he dropped out of the race last month. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders say they’d push for a voluntary weaponbuyback program.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee put forward a plan Tuesday that would direct federal law enforcement to develop a strategy for confronting white nationalism, along with tracking white nationalists and releasing an annual report on domestic terrorism.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s plan proposes a $1 billion effort to combat radicalization and domestic terrorism. The mayor also proposed pushing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study links between white supremacists and gun violence.
Biden, Sanders and Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have called for using more national resources to combat white supremacy and domestic terrorism.
Booker, Buttigieg and Inslee have released plans calling for a nationwide requirement that every gun owner be trained and have a license.
Booker said he will push to require new handguns to stamp identifying information on bullet casings when a shot is fired. Proponents say that would make it easier to solve gun crimes.
Biden has endorsed the idea of requiring fingerprint-identification technology that only allows a gun to be fired when held by the authorized owner.