Sen. Cory Booker, the New Jersey Democrat who has been consistently trailing the margin of error in polls for the 2020 Democratic nomination, is trying to make a splash Monday with an aggressive plan to regulate and limit gun ownership. His proposal is rooted in what he presents as a simple idea: “You need a license to drive a car, you should need one to own a gun.” But his desire to regulate guns like cars somehow only applies when it comes to placing more restrictions on gun ownership.
The analogy of treating guns like cars has long been a popular one among the anti-gun crowd because it’s a way of trying to present their ideas as reasonable. After all, people undergo a proficiency test and licensing requirements to drive cars, which, like guns, are pieces of machinery that can alternatively be used for a positive purpose or can be dangerous if misused or used maliciously.
The message is so simple it can translate easily to banners such as this one from Booker’s Twitter page:
We have to keep guns out of the wrong hands. https://t.co/6dTQ3SGJcM pic.twitter.com/PqSrGthF62
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 6, 2019
The problem is that Booker, like other gun control proponents, ignores the parts of the analogy when it’s inconvenient to their aims of restricting lawful gun ownership.
As Eugene Volokh and others have pointed out for years, there are many ways in which regulating guns like cars would be a step in the direction of more gun rights.
The examples are numerous. There are no requirements for car owners to get licensed or registered at the federal level, but Booker is proposing moving to federal licensing for guns. People are allowed to drive a car without a license on their own private property, but Booker wouldn’t allow unlicensed gun owners to purchase guns for their own self-defense or sporting use on their own property. A person can obtain a driver’s license by passing an easy test, and it typically can’t be revoked for misconduct that does not involve driving, whereas Booker wants to require strict FBI background checks and to expand the categories of people whose gun rights could be stripped away by government. Driver’s licenses issued in one state are recognized by all others, and there aren’t restrictions in driving one’s car to another state, but that is not the case with guns. Also, there is no waiting period to purchase a car, as there is with a gun.
Of course, Booker could point to many reasons as to why society would want to treat guns differently than it does cars. But, to channel Lloyd Bentsen, “You are the one that was making the comparison, Senator.”
