Supreme Court Barrett confirmation
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

 

As the toll from the epidemic of gun violence and deadly mass shootings across the country, most recently in Lewiston, Maine, continues to grow, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Chair of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, reintroduced the Federal Firearm Licensing Act, legislation that would require individuals to obtain a federal firearm license before purchasing or receiving a firearm.

Studies have shown that licensing laws can significantly reduce gun violence in places that have enacted them. For example, according to the Giffords Law Center, Connecticut saw its gun homicide and gun suicide rates decrease by 28 and 33 percent, respectively, after passing a state licensing law. In contrast, after Missouri repealed its firearm licensing law, the state saw a 47 percent increase in its gun homicide rate and 24 percent increase in its gun suicide rate. Licensing laws also enjoy strong support from Americans, with 77% backing the idea according to a Quinnipiac survey from 2019.

“The epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings continues to claim the lives of thousands of innocent Americans every year,” said Senator Booker. “If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to own and use a gun. Data shows that states that have implemented licensing laws have significantly reduced gun-related deaths. This legislation would mirror this common-sense idea at the federal level and enhance public safety by ensuring that individuals seeking to purchase firearms pass a standard background check and are properly trained before obtaining a required license. We are not powerless to stop the carnage in our communities. Meaningful reforms like this will prevent gun violence, save lives, and make our communities safer.”

Press release from Rep. Cory Booker

94 COMMENTS

  1. Okay, cool.
    So, like a car, I can own whatever and however many guns and accessories I can afford and drive it anywhere I want, right?

    • “If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to own and use a gun.”
      How does such ignorance get elected?
      He still does not know the difference between a right and a privilege.

      • You also don’t need to drive a car. You need a license to drive a car ON PUBLIC ROADS. Private land, you can do whatever you want. In-fact, there have briefly been at least one professional race driver without a driver’s license: Kyle Busch lost his license for extreme speeding once (though I don’t think he actually did any race while that was in effect).

        • “Because the electorate is just as if not more ignorant.”

          And there it is; stake in the heart of elections. Those same voters re-produce.

        • Sam,

          As Robert Anson Heinlein famously said, “Vox pupulei, vox Dei” translates to “Oh my God, how did we get into THIS mess??”.

          People stupid enough to vote for Senile Joe, the serial child molester, are, nevertheless, allowed to vote.

          Sow the wind; reap the whirlwind. There is an ACTIVE movement to allow ex-felons to vote (and exercise other “civil rights”). Where is the active movement to allow ex-felons to exercise their 2A rights in fairness, there is some movement in that direction)?

          Once again, the Left proves that their “empathy” is a sham, and that EVERYTHING they do is political.

      • there is debate about that. according to the Supreme Court you have a right to travel. it is a common-law right predating but incorporated in the constitution. well, try traveling today without a DL and registration of your vehicle. the right to travel is clearly being infringed by these requirements but you are used to them so you won’t oppose the infringement. the infringement is the status quo you grew up with.

        it also appears to be a stronger right as you cannot block someone’s ability to travel to their property or property they have authorization to access by buying all the surrounding property. you would still have to provide an access easement. on guns, private property owners cannot be forced to allow you to bear arms on their property.

        • The right to travel is not included in the Bill Of Rights which are God given Rights. Driver’s license are not a federal requirement; but, all 50 states require the driver to have a driver’s license and any person is free to travel in any vehicle so long as they are not driving as an unlicensed individual.
          There is a huge difference between the Bill Of Rights and the right to travel.

        • Hush,

          It would be easier, and take up less space, to say “I’ve never read the Federalist Papers, and I have no idea about the concept of ‘inherent rights'”. What part of “the Constitution is a universal declaration of inherent rights (read the 10th Amendment), and that the Constitution ONLY intended to grant rights to government as specified in the body thereof?

          “Travel” is only a ‘privilege’ because we were stupid, and allowed it to be that. Idiot Leftist/fascists and Dimocrats (ah, but I repeat myself) are ALL ABOUT restricting Everyman’s rights . . . as long as we coddle their particular beloved oppressed people. How about we just let people sort it out for themselves, and the incompetent/dysfunctional will . . . learn or die? (Kinda like how Darwin had it sussed out, and ‘Mother Gaia’ has been dealing with things since one-celled organisms ruled the Earth.)

          State-controlled “driving tests”, as a requirement for a “driver’s license”, are an integral part of ONE of my arguments about why the government should have nothing to say about my exercise of my inherent rights.

      • It’s those masses of Free-Shit Addicted Useful Idiot Government Plantation Dwellers……and, illegals coming to a plush hotel in your town….. voting for politicians like Booker that worry me.

        Hey, Booker, how has that car licensing thingy worked at saving lives??? More killed annually in car crashes than by guns….actually, Defective Citizens, not guns……

        The Bookers of the world hate We The Little Peeps having rights, and want to control the privileges. The body count is merely a justification to the Useful idiots for civilian dis-armament.

        “The consensus is that no more than five to ten people in a hundred who die by gunfire in Los Angeles are any loss to society. These people fight small wars amongst themselves. It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied with ammunition.” – the late Marine Col Jeff Cooper, gone since 2006, smarter by the year…..

    • And, many states allow drivers licenses at 16. And, there’s no blanket prohibition on convicted felons, domestic abusers, dishonorable discharged veterans.
      And, there’s no federal license required of dealers.
      And….

      The idiots who push the “treated just like motor vehicles” narrative only look at 1 side of the issue.

      • “And, many states allow drivers licenses at 16.”

        In some farming communities, it’s even lower for farm equipment that must travel on rural roads to get to the fields…

        • In WV you could legally get a license at 14 if you met the requirements. That was 40 years ago. Laws may have changed since.

        • Haz, that’s how and where I got mine, had to wait til 15 to get a ClassA Chauffeur license – that’s what they used to call a Commercial DL back in the 70s

        • 9 years old and grandpa put me on the AliceChalmers Model B.
          Dads Case would out run it.
          LOL the Case broke down and after Dad got done working on it I straightened all those miss aligned spark plug wires out for him. I liked things nice and neat,
          U U U U, why have all that this one goes here that one goes way back here stuff?

      • And if I drive around without a muffler on my car, the man will get all up in my business. But if I try to go around *with* a muffler on my firearm (without undergoing an anal exam and paying them money) they’ll also get all up in my business.

    • in line with that thinking you’d need a license to post here…they simply can’t understand or comprehend the status of a “right”…..

  2. I did not know guns could be violent. People of course, but guns(tools) can be violent? Huh! Learn something new every day. Can I go throw up now, after listening to these fools. REALLY!

  3. The answer to so-called gun violence is criminal incarceration.

    The answer to gun safety is education.

    This isn’t that difficult to grasp. The left just doesn’t want to do that.

    • “The answer to gun safety is education.”

      Start with Eddie Eagle curriculum in elementary school, ending with gun handling and firing in high school. Use the driver’s ed model…

  4. No they don’t, there’s only one solution for them…….they know it, we know it, they know we know it………

  5. Sure, because it works so well with cars.

    How about this, you want us to have a license to exercise an enumerated right? Sure, let’s play this game. Once we have said license, we can purchase whatever we want, in any caliber, any barrel length, from break action to full auto, the NFA is gone, no waiting periods, no more background checks to purchase, we can cross state lines to purchase, we can have firearms shipped direct to our homes. No restrictions on where we can carry, and just for good measure, no taxes on firearms, ammo, or any accessories.

    I mean, if you want to compromise, let’s compromise.

    • Problem is that if they get THAT thing passed (NOT) it would also include an annual renewal with fees in the hundreds of dollars…

  6. Requiring a license gives the government the option of saying “No” to a fundamental constitutional right. The second amendment was written specifically to handcuff the government from interfering with the fundamental right to keep and bear arms.

  7. 42,000 motor vehicle deaths last year.
    12,000 firearm related homicides.
    Let’s be disingenuous and include suicide, my body my choice but whatever, 23,000.

    So pretty much on par. Maybe it’s time to do away with drivers licensing? It couldn’t hurt and may actually get those numbers down to firearms level.

  8. Why Bother ????

    By the time they get it set up, The Nation will be bankrupt from decades of spending other people’s money & giving away freebies like they are candy. Federal Debt alone is $100,000 for every man, woman and child in the USA. Add in unfunded Federal, State & Municipal liabilities and a shitstorm awaits.

  9. People have a naive idea that a “license” implies capacity and responsibility. A sine qua non; without which, not. This is perfectly silly.
    My father learned to drive a car at age 8. When a driver’s license law was adopted, he presented himself at the courthouse for a vigorous examination. The clerk asked him: “Young man, do you know how to drive?”. My father answered the question satisfactorily. He was issued a license. That was the ONLY license he had throughout his entire life. To my knowledge, he never had a ticket or accident, with one exception. He claimed it was the deer’s fault.
    My father never took a firearms course in his life. He never had an accident. I self-taught myself about firearms by playing with them from the age of 8. I didn’t take a course until I was 60. I haven’t had a negligent discharge in my life.
    I see no evidence in the news reports of homicides that the problem stems from a lack of knowledge and facility in the effective and safe use of firearms. Perpetrators of violence seem to exhibit a modicum of knowledge and skill.
    The problem lies elsewhere, outside the scope of what might be covered by a training curriculum prerequisite to a license.
    And, in any case, those intent on violence will not be impeded by laws prohibiting possession of lethal objects.

    • If a license is a guarantee of perfect performance, then why are there so many car wrecks not to mention drivers failing to stop, run red lights, failing to yield, speeding etc.
      Just like a license is no guarantee neither is training a guarantee as some advocate.

      As per gun safety free, no obligation, no private information required to take a Free online gun safety course 24/7 at your convenience:
      https://www.learningsciencescorp.com/coursedemos/lsp/firearms/

      • I checked out this course offered by the State of Louisiana. It conveys basic information geared to an absolute beginner at handguns. I’d recommend it to anyone who desires to learn from a perspective of never having handled a firearm. It can also serve as a refresher to those of us more familiar with gunm handling.

    • You sure it is a dud?: They are gonna get to arrest/ intimidate a whole bunch of formerly law abiding VOTING gun owners. Who won’t be VOTING any more.

      Just saying.

  10. Booker is a d##khead.
    So getting training, register my guns and pay $200 tax stamp will curb gun violence.
    Wow I’ve been getting it all wrong all these years😭

  11. This will never pass constitutional muster because you can’t require a license to exercise a constitutionally-enumerated right. Even Mister Potatohead Booker knows this, which means the Dims undoubtedly have a plan for enforcing this extra-constitutionally.

    • The plan? Well, Porkpie, I hate to recommend a book written by a white supremacist racist – but the book seems to be instructional. I invite you to look up The Turner Diaries. Wikipedia’s article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turner_Diaries You can easily find it, and download it for free. I despise the author, I despise white supremacy, but if you read that book, you will find parallels in Antifa and the BLM today, not to mention prosecuting attorneys who refuse to prosecute based on race.

  12. Anyone who is sane realizes that if all guns had to be registered the thousands of second hand gun sales with no paperwork would cease to exist.

    By and large most criminals buy second hand guns , its a fact and when that supply is cut off their access to guns would then be severely limited.

    Try and buy a second hand gun sometime in Europe or Asia. Its not impossible but its damn difficult.

    There was a incident in both Japan and Germany recently where the nut cases had to make their own guns. The attempt in Japan succeeded but the Attempt in Germany failed. In Capitalvania both nut cases would have used second hand assault rifles and killed multitudes of people in seconds not just the one casualty in Japan.

  13. Studies have shown that tyrants love gun registration. Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and the list goes on.

    Funny thing – it doesn’t appear that gun registration schemes are implemented in Arabic and/or Muslim countries. We read stories all the time about drunken idiots at weddings shooting up the countryside with AKs and other automatic weapons. I don’t see follow-ups about those guys being arrested and charged with gun law violations.

    Odd that our own government should be more tyrannical that Iran, or any of a dozen other countries.

  14. JBOL!

    Since when has a criinal ever gone to any government entity and applied for a pistiol permit? Cory Booker and his DEMONcRAT cronies are hysterical ninnies.

  15. There will come a day when law abiding gun owners will have their fill of this crap and this country will see owners go to the streets and make those BLM protests, ok riots look like a kindergarten nyd trip to the zoo.

  16. I mean, if those poll numbers are real, and not some BS from deep within your anal cavity, then you should have zero problems getting your legislation passed. Put up, or STFU.

    • I’m pretty sure that they pulled the poll numbers out of their asses collectively. Must be a sight to see. I would love to hear these clowns speaking in their twisted panty meetings.

  17. RE: “If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to own and use a gun.”

    Nothing lower than a lowlife using the criminal misuse of an inanimate object to get what he wants–criminal misuse or no criminal misuse. gfy democRat.

  18. Politics can make some strange bed-fellows. Oddly enuff I stand with the (old) 1960’s Black Panther Party when they said that the “Right of the People to Armed Self-Defense” is inviolable. They said other things with which I profoundly disagree, but they hit the nail with that one.

  19. How about training and a license to be a politician. Screw up loose your license, loose your job.
    The way things are right now the halls of congress would be empty if that was the law.

  20. One wonders- these stats on so-called “gun violence”… do they include legal self-defense shootings and police use of force shootings? If so, it’s a BS figure. Only CRIMINAL use of firearms should be included in their figures. Likewise, suicides shouldnt be included either, in my view, since a suicide is gonna suicide, regardless of method available. (Knife, rope, pills, auto crash, exhaust fumes, jumping.. etc). I’ve known 5 suicide cases in my life, and NONE used a gun..

    • It’s way beyond time to call vets to the border to shut that border down. Get wet feet, become Gulf fishy food…….flush the trash on down the Rio to the Gulf. Make it a BYORAT event….Bring Your Own Rifle, Ammo, Thermals…optics and long-johns.

  21. The statistics quoted are ALL LIES.
    All he wants to do is provide “gun safety” to a55wipe politicians like himself for when TSHTF and there is a second Revolutionary War in this country to take it back from crooked politicians who want to rule over nothing but “drone citizens”.
    BiDUMB has stated he would use our military against revolting citizens, violating the Posse Comitatus Act (look it up). But in reality, I believe it safe to assume the majority of these soldiers would lay down their arms and not fight U.S. Citizens in that manner.

    • I’d hope that instead of laying down their arms that they’d bring them all with when they joined us.

  22. If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to own and use a gun

    AND just like ALL those “unlicensed” uninsured individuals driving around on the streets and highways of America there will be a plethora of individuals running around armed without that govt license… Criminals are not likely to line up to have their pictures taken for a gun license…
    We need to back to Congress meeting for a limited time every couple of years and change their pay to expenses plus a small salary during their in-session periods…

    • Agreed. FL passes a gazillion laws every year. It sorta reminds me of high-school football season.

      If I had time, I would rank the states by average laws passed/yr and hominy laws are on the books.

  23. Maybe Booker can get our gun violence rate as low as North Korea’s.

    A big step on the Dem path to gun nirvana is the point where only criminals and cops got guns. Like Mexico. The next stage is where the crims are the cops. Easy peasy, that one is. Mexico would already have done it, but there is so much money and power in the dope biz, they have been putting it off.

  24. Maybe Booker should be required to purchase a “stupid ideas” license, it would seem that “Spartacus” is full of them…

    • From the (inherently insane) commie POV, it ain’t stupid. If we resurrected Karl Marx, he would look around and say ” What in the HELL are y’all crying about?”, and join the GOP.

  25. “If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to own and use a gun.”

    Both are constitutionally protected activities, you dimwit!

    First off, going wherever one wants, whenever one wants to, by whatever mode one selects, is a RIGHT that pre-existed the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. It is therefore a NATURAL RIGHT that is protected by the Ninth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

    Second, the SCOTUS has ruled that: ‘A State, or the federal govt. is forbidden from converting a RIGHT that is secured by the U.S. Constitution into a privilege by requiring Americans to acquire a license and pay a fee in order to exercise that secured RIGHT.’ (re: Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105)

    Therefore, Americans are NOT constitutionally required to acquire a license to go wherever they want to go in an automobile, even though we’ve unwittingly allowed govt. to strip us of that constitutionally secured RIGHT.

    It would be similarly unconstitutional for the government to convert our RIGHT to “keep and bear Arms” into a privilege by requiring us to pay for a license in order for us to freely and unencumbered-ly exercise that RIGHT.

    But they got away with the unconstitutional licensing of “travelers” (the word “driver” denotes one who uses a motor vehicle for commercial purposes) to operate an automobile for non-commercial reasons, so they might try to get away with licensing gun-owners too, but it would eventually be challenged for its unconstitutionality.

    • “Veehickles cause people to drive to the gunm store and once they get their gunm the veehickles cause them to drive to the liquor store and rob it.”

      Finally ! Someone discovered the Milling Link….between humans and crime.

    • Civil crying is about all I would expect.
      .giv knows we ain’t going to give up our cushy lives over something as menial as rights and freedoms.
      That Freedom Rights stuff is left to the power of an attorney, and by golly everyone knows when the gavel falls Rights will be honored. Har har har

  26. “Therefore, Americans are NOT constitutionally required to acquire a license to go wherever they want to go in an automobile”

    Factually incorrect, assuming you are doing the driving.

  27. Democrats think. But ,but, but, isnt JRB a Democrat?
    Perhaps someone should tell him of this thinking thing.
    Blabber on Mr.President, blabber on.
    Oh btw, Putin has invited Biden over for pancakes and tea….🤣

    • possum,

      Love ya, bro, but . . . in what UNIVERSE is Senile Joe, the serial child-molester, capable of actual thought? The “Big Guy” (who gets 10%) was a moron when he was first elected to the Congress (and then, quickly, to the Senate – can anyone else say, “useful idiot”???), has been on the WRONG side of every major issue since his “thoughts” began being recorded, and has now become senile.

      I don’t fault Pudding-cup Joe for his senility; at this level of our medical knowledge, we can’t “cure” senility. On the other hand, I am one of those people who actually evaluates people based upon their degree of delusion. MajorLiar and dacian the demented inhabit a world that exists solely inside their head. I got no idea what “world” Senile Joe or Kamal-ho inhabit (and I have no desire to go there), but people should (and nature and Darwin intended) either learn to function or expire.

      Senile Joe couldn’t think if you offered him 10 chocolate chip ice cream cones for ONE coherent thought.

      OTOH, I have a squirrel friend (who claims to be dialed-in on all things marsupial) who tells me that possums have a rich, evolved philosophy of believing seven impossible things before breakfast.

  28. Ok, lets explore the premise. A Drivers license is valid in all parts of the US and is valid in many foreign countries. The test is written so the average 16 year old can pass the test in the first or second try. A DL is easily transferred to another state by simply paying a fee with no test required.
    So, will the firearm license be as simple to pass? Good both nation wide and in much of the world? And, you need to try to screw up enough to lose the license. Nor does a DL infer or endow actual competence as a driver.
    Next question is just how many criminals involved with firearms related crimes had the state required permits to carry/purchase/own a firearm?
    Having a DL doesn’t prevent anyone from misusing a motor vehicle. Nor does a lack of a DL prevent owning, building, or purchasing a vehicle. So, how would a firearms license prevent anyone from owning, purchasing, or misusing a firearm.

    • Veehickles cause people to drive to the gunm store and once they get their gunm the veehickles cause them to drive to the liquor store and rob it.

    • well,..they’re not trying t o outlaw cars or deny them to us…[not yet, anyway]…but their position on gun ownership has been crystal clear for some time now….

  29. So will i need a license to voice an opinion?
    How about federal permission to remain silent if arrested or will Sparticus be ok with using any means necessary?
    Do we need a permit to stave off illegal searches or is that a privilege extended only to Bidens?
    Their hatred for whats been called the pesky 2a is complete.

  30. So when growing up in Alaska, You could get a drivers permit at age 14, however you could get an actual license to ride a motorcycle up to 100cc on the roadways at age 14. Yea, didn’t make sense to me either, but it sure was fun!
    Representatives like Booker and Jeffries count on the ignorance of city dwellers to act like gun ownership is not a right, Matter of fact they count on it. The know better, but they intentionally lie to their constituents.
    This reason by itself is why we need to make sure every American who wants a gun can get one.

  31. You know they’re lying when they use percentages rather than real numbers. It’s beyond time for We The People to hold them personally liable for all unconstitutional laws.

      • possum,

        DUDE!! Ya gotta vote LOUDER!!! (Like the Dimocrats do – surely you knew some dead possums, and you can cast a vote for them!!).

  32. as one of the dumbest men
    to have ever stepped in the senate chamber
    cory booker is too stupid to understand
    that driving a car
    aint in the bill of rights…

  33. You do NOT need a license to drive a car on private property in most states. That is a stupid comparison, but if the government is going to license rights maybe we need to license speech and voting while we are at this authoritarian anticivil rights brainstorming that Booker is on.

  34. Then you also need a license to be a senator. Which will include an intelligence test.

  35. these are the same people that balk about a license for voting and say it disenfranchises the poor and minorities. ask yourself why they would want one for guns ….

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