Democrats End 2020 Campaign Much Bolder on Guns Than When They Started. It will Save Lives.

November 3, 2020

WASHINGTON -- Guns Down America, a national movement calling for dramatically fewer guns in America, released the following statement regarding the 2020 election.

“One of the most consequential moments of the 2020 election has already happened. Politicians have reset the conversation on gun violence and public officials have embraced the bolder, broader solutions that voters have been demanding for years,” said Igor Volsky, Executive Director of Guns Down America. “We have all seen the cost of inaction on guns this summer amid the coronavirus gun surge. We have also seen what a safer America with fewer guns could look like, thanks to bold plans from Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders, among many others.”

Among the bold plans that are now part of the gun violence prevention conversation:

• Joe Biden/Kamala Harris: "As part of his presidential campaign, Biden introduced a sweeping gun control plan that includes universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, more resources toward the enforcement of existing gun laws, a public push for the development of “smart guns,” and incentives for states to adopt “red flag” laws, which let courts confiscate guns from people deemed a risk to themselves or others and develop gun-licensing systems…”

• Cory Booker: “Sen. Cory Booker wants Democrats to go bolder on guns — and says they’re playing into the hands of the National Rifle Association and the corporate gun lobby by rejecting bolder ideas...Booker, who is running for president, was among the first 2020 candidates to release a comprehensive gun policy platform, as well as a second platform that focused on gun suicides…”

• Elizabeth Warren: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren has released one of the most sweeping gun policy proposals of the Democratic presidential candidates. And she’s set a big objective for the plan: to get US gun deaths down by 80 percent. It’s an ambitious, if not downright impossible, goal — one that would attempt to shift US levels of gun violence down to that of America’s developed peers. But Warren’s plan goes further than the typical Democratic proposals, which are mostly focused on universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, to start moving America in that direction....”

• Bernie Sanders: “Following mass shootings and gun violence, Sanders said, ‘The world has changed, and my views have changed.’ “At a campaign rally in Milford, N.H.,Sanders listed his gun violence agenda. ‘Universal background checks, ending the gun show loophole, and ending the sale and distribution of assault weapons in America,’ he said Feb. 4.”