Seven Gun Controls Eric Swalwell Would Pursue as President

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) announced his presidential bid on Monday night and in less than 48 hours has named seven gun controls he will push during his campaign.

A few of those controls have been previously mentioned and/or pursued by Swalwell, while the rest of them were presented during an April 9, 2019, town hall in Parkland, Florida.

Here are the controls:

• Licensing of Gun Owners – During his town hall Swalwell made clear that he would support a federal licensing plan similar to that in Illinois or Massachusetts. This means would-be gun owners would have to acquire a license from the federal government before being able to exercise their Second Amendment right to own a firearm for self-defense.
• Requiring Gun Owners to Carry Insurance – Swalwell also voiced support for having gun owners carry insurance. This idea has been pushed numerous times by Democrats, who suggest gun owners ought to be forced to get insurance to help off-set the cost of criminal use of firearms.
• Creation of a Federal Database of Gun Owners – This was another gun control discussed by Swalwell during his town hall. He dismissed concerns that a database will lead to confiscation, saying, ““I just don’t buy that there’s going to be any national round-up of guns. No one is saying, ‘Round up the guns.’” He claimed that fear of a government-sponsored firearm round-up is “illogical.”
• Criminalizaton of Private Gun Sales (via Universal Background Checks) – This has been one of the longer-running controls in Swalwell’s overall gun control push. He pushes the leftist talking points that background checks save lives, make us safer, etc. All the while he ignores the fact that nearly every mass shooter in the last decade acquired his guns via a background check.
• An “Assault Weapons” Ban – Swalwell wants to ban what he describes as “15 million ‘assault weapons.'” He not only wants to ban their future sale but prohibition current possession of them as well.
• Mandatory Buyback of Banned “Assault Weapons” – He wants to implement a mandatory buyback of banned “assault weapons,” wherein Americans would hand them over or face criminal prosecution.
• Implement Australian-Style Gun Control – Swalwell told Esquire magazine that the U.S. needs to do as Australia  and New Zealand have done regarding gun control. He said, “Do what Australia did, do what New Zealand did. They’ve shown us—Australia in the 90s, New Zealand just this week—that courage in doing the right thing can protect people.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.