2020 Democrats Warm to Mandatory Buybacks of Assault Weapons
- Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke favor such a policy
- Party splits as Biden, Sanders, Warren want it to be voluntary
Photographer: George Frey/Bloomberg
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As mass shootings pile up, several Democratic presidential candidates are embracing mandated “buybacks” of assault weapons, a proposal that sharpens the political divide on guns and raises the stakes for the 2020 election.
In New Hampshire on Friday, Senator Kamala Harris of California told reporters that requiring owners of assault weapons to sell them to the government is “a good idea” because “we have to take those guns off the streets.”