Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a 2020 presidential hopeful, revealed a new plan on gun reform Saturday morning. Her plan covers a lot and has an explicit (and admirable) goal for her legislation and (eventually) executive action: Reduce gun deaths by 80%.
In her plan, which you can read in full on her Medium post, Warren outlines a number of facets for this sweeping proposal. She wants to do what a lot of progressives have also discussed: investigate the National Rifle Association, take away gun licenses from those who break dealership laws and gun traffickers, as well as require more thorough background checks for gun purchases.
Moving beyond those proposals, though, Warren has a lot more ready to go. She wants to raise the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, to create a federal licensing system, and to limit the total number of guns someone can buy. She also wants to hold gun manufacturers, and in some examples, even CEOS, liable. In addition to liability, she wants to raise taxes from 10% to 30% on guns and from 11% to 50% on ammunition. The senator also wants to see urban gun violence intervention programs.
Warren also wants to eliminate the Senate filibuster that has made passing any legislation difficult. She believes she could pass gun reform this way.
"We've gotta have a leader who's willing to stand up to the gun lobby and say no more. And to take away one of their principle tools, which is the filibuster," she said to NPR’s Politics Podcast in an interview.
How would all of this actually happen? It depends based on which aspect of the plan you’re looking at. Some could be accomplished through executive action, like expanding background checks, closing loopholes of existing laws, like the “boyfriend” loophole that fails people experiencing domestic violence, and directing the federal government to prosecute gun traffickers.
An assault weapon ban, raising the minimum gun sales age to 21, and a ban on high-capacity magazines all fall under the legislative side.
For people who already own assault weapons, she proposes a program for people to dispose of or register the guns, with penalties for those who don’t.
“We might not know how to get all the way there yet,” Warren writes in her Medium post. “But we’ll start by implementing solutions that we believe will work. We’ll continue by constantly revisiting and updating those solutions based on new public health research.”
Her plan covers that, too. She wants $100 million per year invested into gun violence research and suggests that, comparable to reducing car deaths via safety measures, the same can be achieved with gun reform.
What do you think about Senator Warren’s sweeping plan?
