Warren releases gun reform plan with a focus on mass shootings
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Sen. Elizabeth Warren released her 2020 gun reform plan on Saturday before the Everytown for Gun Safety presidential forum in Des Moines, Iowa, calling for a federal assault weapons ban and universal background checks.
Catch up quick: Warren, one of the last top polling 2020 Democrats to release a formal gun control proposal, directly names recent mass shootings to underline the importance of her policy. Her plan wraps gun control into her broader anti-corruption package and identifies white nationalism as a form of domestic terrorism, in reference to the alleged shooter in El Paso.
What else her plan aims to do:
- Reduce the number of U.S. gun deaths — noting the 39,773 who died in 2017 — by 80%.
- Appoint an attorney general to investigate the NRA's business practices and make it harder to export guns from the U.S.
- Pass a federal assault weapons ban, create a federal licensing system, require universal background checks and increase taxes on gun manufacturers.
- Establish a 1-week waiting period for all firearm purchases, raise the minimum purchasing age and limit bulk firearm purchases.
- Ban high-capacity ammunition magazines and accessories like silencers and trigger cranks.
- Prevent those convicted of hate crimes from owning a gun and closing the "boyfriend loophole" by preventing those convicted of domestic abuse or assault from owning a gun.
- Improve the Gun-Free School Zones Act to include college campuses and repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
- Extend reporting requirements on the mass purchase of certain rifles from the southwestern border states to all 50 states.
Go deeper: Where 2020 Democrats stand on gun control
