Sen. Cory Booker promises to take on the NRA if he is elected president. (Screen capture, YouTube, CNN)
Looking to score points with the gun prohibition crowd, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) declared during a CNN town hall event in South Carolina—where gun control is a four-letter word to a lot of people—promised to “bring the fight” to the National Rifle Association.
“I am tired of going to funerals where parents are burying their children and so I am gonna bring a fight – we are gonna bring a fight like the NRA has never seen if they’re going to defend corporate gun manufacturers more than represent us people,” Booker said, as reported by Fox News.
One of about 15 Democrats so far running to unseat Donald Trump, Booker became something of a joke after he had his “Spartacus” moment during the Senate Judiciary hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
But nobody is laughing at this threat. Booker is a devoted anti-gunner, and during the discussion he reportedly accused the NRA leadership of not representing their members. NRA will be meeting next month for its convention in Indianapolis, where a predicted turnout of about 90,000 may come to pass.
“This is very personal to so many of us,” Booker said during the meeting. “Me, because I’m a black man, and black males are six percent of the nation’s population. But they make up the majority of homicide victims in this country.”
What he didn’t say, though, is that a lot of those black male victims were shot by black male suspects.
The New Jersey lawmaker accused NRA of showing more interest in legal loopholes to gun laws that allow gun sales to criminals than taking care of their members.
“If I’m your president,” he said, “we’re going to bring the fight to the NRA who wants to represent corporate gun owners, manufacturers, more than they want to represent the people because this is what they’re doing to Americans.”
In addition to taking a swipe at the NRA, Booker is also no fan of the Electoral College. He thinks presidential elections should be decided by the popular vote. However, according to Electoral College supporters, that would mean future elections would be decided by the urban voters in a handful of states, leaving the rest of the country essentially powerless as presidential voters.
Booker has a lot of competitors, including California’s Sen. Kamala Harris and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, both of them also ardent anti-gunners. The primary season doesn’t start for another year, and the election is not until November 2020.
Democrats have become increasingly bold in their anti-gun rhetoric, which appeals to their base. But that base appears to be shifting farther to the left all the time.
