Cory Booker rolls out gun control plan: Gun owner licenses, weapons bans, limits on purchases

Sen. Cory A. Booker[1] of New Jersey proposed Monday that all gun owners be licensed by the federal government, grabbing attention for his struggling campaign by delving into the gun control debate that has flummoxed Democratic presidential hopefuls for decades. Firearm licenses topped a long list of measures that Mr. Booker[2] prescribed for what he called the “epidemic of gun violence.” He also wants to limit Americans to one gun purchase per month, crack down on firearm manufactures, ban military-style semi-automatic rifles and beef up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to go after gun dealers. He pledged that on his first day as president he would bypass Congress and take executive action to restrict gun sales and crack down on unscrupulous dealers and gun manufacturers. “I’m coming at this full bore. Enough of this seeming to resign ourselves to this level of carnage in America,” Mr. Booker[3] told CBS News. Mr. Booker[4] will lead a roundtable discussion of his gun control plan Friday in North Carolina, where a gunman opened fire last week on a university campus, killing two and wounding four. The sweeping plan thrust Mr. Booker[5] into the spotlight for a potential breakout moment for a presidential run that has languished in the low single digits in polls. But the move risked alienating gun-owning Democrats in early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire and raised doubts about his electability in a general election matchup with President Trump, who supports gun rights. “It is hard to believe that this proposal will go over well here in Iowa. Too many hunters who are also Democrats,” said Daniel Callahan, chairman of the Democratic Party in Buchanan County. “Mainstream Democrats will walk away from this campaign.” He said Mr. Booker[6] appeared to be attempting to “catch

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