Taking a Stand: What the 2020 Democratic Candidates Plan to Do About Gun Violence

It’s a shameful fact that even common sense gun laws have failed to pass in Congress in recent years, despite supposed support from the vast majority of Americans, according to polls. But now that some of the very U.S. senators who voted in favor of gun reform are running for president in the 2020 Democratic primary: what, exactly, do they plan to do about gun violence?

For many, the issue hits all too close to home: according to an estimate by ABC News, “only one of the nearly two dozen major Democratic presidential candidates has not seen a mass shooting take place in their state while in office: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.”

All who have stated positions on gun reform support the basic recommendations of universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons. But where the candidates’ stances differ may be a function of their roots: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, the former mayor of Newark, a city inordinately impacted by gun violence, proposes the strictest plan, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar of the purple state of Minnesota, backs so-called “common-sense reform,” but also considers the effect on her deer-hunting uncle. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was criticized in the 2016 race for voting against background checks in the 90s while representing the rural state of Vermont, has now made it clear that he emphatically supports them.

Many 2020 Dems aren’t mincing words in their framing of the crisis, condemning gun violence as a “national epidemic” and a “public health emergency.” And while there is much overlap in their stances, they range from gun licensing to “James Bond”-style gun tech disruption to buy-backs. Ahead, a summary of where the candidates currently polling in the top 10 stand of the 23 Democrats running for president:

Bernie Sanders - “Bernie believes we can and will end the epidemic of gun violence in this country,” a campaign spokesperson tells Vogue. Sanders’s proposals include “instant universal background checks,” closing the gun show loophole, and taking on the National Rifle Association: “The NRA has become a partisan lobbying public-relations entity for gun manufacturers,” Sanders says. “Its influence must be stopped.” NRA Rating (2016): D-

Cory Booker - The New Jersey senator boldly proposes what he calls “the most comprehensive gun violence prevention plan of any candidate for president in decades." Its hallmark: A federal gun licensing system that would certify people to buy and own guns. “If you need a license to drive a car,” Booker says, “you should need a license to own a gun.” NRA Rating: F

Joe Biden - The former VP was aligned with President Obama in his (failed) attempts at passing gun reform, leading the White House Task Force on Guns. Now Biden’s stance includes advocating for technological innovations like fingerprint-locking firearms: “We should be able to make a weapon that...can only be fired with James Bond kind of stuff,” Biden has said. “If it has your print on it, you’re the only one that can pull the trigger.” (He’s skeptical about a potential federal licensing system). NRA Rating (while in Congress): F

Elizabeth Warren - The 2020 candidate known for her big plans cites gun violence as a “national emergency” she’d tackle “right off the top” of her presidency. Warren wants to ban assault weapons and bump stocks, and follow the money in Big Gun: After the Parkland shooting, she penned an open letter to major companies, like Fidelity, saying, “You have reaped significant benefits from your investment in gun manufacturers, but have done little to reduce the violence and murders caused by their products.” NRA Rating: F

Kamala Harris - The California senator tells Vogue that if Congress fails to send comprehensive gun safety legislation to her desk within her first 100 days as president, she’d take swift executive action, including “the most comprehensive federal background checks in history,” revoking the licenses of gun manufacturers that break the law and closing the “boyfriend loophole” that still allows domestic abusers of non-wedded partners to obtain guns. According to her campaign: “Kamala believes we can't wait.” NRA Rating: F

Beto O’Rourke - “We must treat this crisis with the urgency it deserves,” said the former Texas congressman, who, in an op-ed in The Houston Chronicle, called for universal background checks “without exceptions”, an assault weapons ban and “red flag laws” that remove firearms from people at risk of harming themselves or others. (O’Rourke initially said he thought Booker’s federal licensing plan might “go too far,” but later added: “we should explore the idea.”)

Amy Klobuchar - As a moderate senator from Minnesota, Klobuchar says she comes to the issue of gun reform “from a little different place than some of my colleagues running for this office.” Like most others, she supports federal background checks and bans on both assault weapons and bump stocks, but Klobuchar says: “I always look at every proposal and say, ‘Would this hurt my Uncle Dick in the deer stand?’ I would say that these common sense proposals...do not.” NRA Rating: F

Kirsten Gillibrand - New York’s junior Senator points to a “proud F rating from the NRA” on her 2020 campaign site, saying: “We need to end our gun violence epidemic.” It’s a reversal of the A rating she received from the group as a congressional representative, when she consistently voted with their interests. For Gillibrand, her newfound stance means the popular universal background checks proposal, plus a vow to stop gun trafficking and close gun safety loopholes to make sure guns can’t land in the hands of criminals. NRA Rating: F

Pete Buttigieg - The millennial mayor of South Bend, Indiana refers to himself as part of “the generation that came of age with school shootings.” His proposal is, perhaps accordingly, strict: like Booker, Buttigieg’s plan includes forming a nationwide gun licensing system. In his first 100 days as president, he says he’d pursue both universal background checks and a ban on bump stocks.

Julian Castro - “I support things like gun buybacks,” the former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary and San Antonio mayor has said. Castro is also in favor of closing the “Charleston loophole,” which allowed Dylann Roof to purchase a gun before his background checks cleared, and “things like mental health that touch on what leads people to use guns in a bad way.”

Art by Joan Wong
Animations by Michel Sayegh

Originally Appeared on Vogue