Cory Booker wants to regulate guns like cars – except when he does not

Senator Cory Booker, the New Jersey Democrat who has consistently lagged the margin of error in polls for the Democratic nomination of 2020, is trying to make waves on Monday with an aggressive plan of regulation and limiting the number of firearms. His proposal is rooted in what he presents as a simple idea: "You need a driver's license to drive a car, you need it to own a firearm." But his desire to regulate firearms, like cars, applies only if it is to impose more restrictions on the possession of firearms.

The analogy of dealing with guns as cars has long been popular among the anti-gun crowd, as it's a way to present their ideas as reasonable. After all, people are subjected to a test of competence and a license to drive cars, which, like firearms, are machines that can also be used for positive purposes or that can be dangerous if they are misused or misused.

The message is so simple that it can easily translate banners such as this one on the Booker Twitter page:

The problem is that Booker, like other proponents of gun control, ignores elements of the analogy when it is contrary to the purpose of restricting the legitimate possession of firearms. Firearms.

As Eugene Volokh and others have pointed out for years, the regulation of firearms as cars would be a step forward in the direction of strengthening gun rights.

The examples are numerous. Car owners are not required to obtain a license or be registered federally, but Booker proposes to switch to federal firearms licenses. People are allowed to drive a car without a license on their own private property, but Booker does not allow owners of unlicensed firearms to purchase weapons for their own self-defense use or to sporting purposes. A person can get a driver's license by passing an easy test. In general, Booker wants to require a strict background check on the FBI and to expand the number of people whose right to look can be protected. stripped by the government. Driving licenses issued in one state are recognized by all others, and there are no restrictions on driving a vehicle in another state, but this is not the case of firearms. In addition, there is no waiting period for the purchase of a car, as is the case with a firearm.

Of course, Booker could point to many reasons why society would want to treat firearms differently from cars. But, to channel Lloyd Bentsen, "You are the one doing the comparison, senator."