Uniformity of Thought: 2020 Dems on Same Page Again for Gun Buybacks
In response to the mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, several Democratic presidential hopefuls want a gun buyback initiative.
According to Fox News, a rising number of 2020 challengers think such a program should be required to get assault weapons out of U.S. communities.
With many Americans calling for stricter gun-control laws following the Aug. 3-4 tragedies, progressive Democrats running for the nation’s highest office view the buyback proposal as a way to curry favor among registered voters.
Despite needing to stand out as individuals and think for themselves, most Democratic candidates agree that a mandatory buyback for assault weapons is necessary.
Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, in addition to ex-Obama administration official Julian Castro, are among those joining forces to back the effort, Fox reported.
The buyback program would “reduce the estimated 400 million guns owned by civilians” in this country,” the outlet said.
With that in mind, Sanders tweeted that such a firearms measure is imperative.
The federal government must ban assault weapons and implement a buyback program to get assault weapons off the streets.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2019
In a recent CNN interview, ex-Vice President Joe Biden asserted the need for a “national buyback program.” The former Delaware senator is still leading polls surveying would-be 2020 voters.
Organizations that favor the Second Amendment, of course, think weapons are being unfairly blamed. Democrats are “coming up with the same old failed policies that haven’t worked in the past,” Erich Pratt, the president of Gun Owners of America, told Fox.
Among others in the race, Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper are at odds; the former supports a buyback plan, but the latter said a similar effort in his state was inconsequential.
Bullock, however, isn’t sold on the notion of the firearms endeavor being a federal requirement. “I think we should have voluntary buybacks,” he said, according to Fox.
UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh said he believes that a federal buyback initiative would defeat the purpose.
“The people you’re most worried about — criminals — they’re either not going to turn in their guns, or if they do turn in their guns, they’ll turn in some old broken down guns, get some money for it, and buy a new gun,” he told Fox.
Most Democrats, meanwhile, continue to want Americans to surrender their weapons.
Any 2020 contender striving to distinguish himself or herself from the pack evidently won’t be able to do so when discussing gun control.
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