Elizabeth Warren on Gun Control

Massachusetts Senator; head of CFPB


Repeal filibuster or gun industry will veto any gun laws

Q: You support a voluntary gun buyback of assault style weapons. Why not a mandatory one?

WARREN: I want to get what work's done. I want to use the method we used, for example, with machine guns. We registered them. We put in a huge penalty if you didn't register them and a huge tax on them and let people turn them in, and it got machine guns out of the hands of people.

We have to reduce gun violence overall, and the question we have to ask is why hasn't it happened? You say, we're so close. We have been so close. I stood in the United States Senate in 2013 when 54 senators voted in favor of gun legislation and it didn't pass because of the filibuster. We've got to attack the corruption and repeal the filibusters or the gun industry will always have a veto over what happens.


People support gun control but Congress is corrupt

The question we need to ask is, when we've got this much support across the country, 90 percent of Americans want to see us do--like registration--want to see us do background checks, want to get assault weapons off the streets, why doesn't it happen? And the answer is corruption, pure and simple. We have a Congress that is beholden to the gun industry.

Seven kids will die today from guns: treat it as emergency

Seven children will die today from gun violence, children and teenagers. Gun violence is a national health emergency in this country. And we need to treat it like that. We can do the universal background checks. We can ban the weapons of war. But we can also double down on the research and find out what really works. We need to treat this like the virus that's killing our children.

Guns in the hands of a collector who's had them for decades, who's never fired them, who takes safety seriously, that's very different from guns that are sold and turned over quickly. We can't treat this as an across-the-board problem. We have to treat it like a public health emergency. That means bring data to bear and it means make real change in this country, whether it's politically popular or not.


Sensible gun laws have to be at federal level, not state

With gun violence, right now we don't do anything, not even the most sensible kinds of things, [like] background checks. If you're on the terrorist watch list, maybe you shouldn't be able to buy a gun. Weapons of war do not belong on our streets. No bump stocks to make it easier to kill. We have to do them at a federal level, because the problem is if they don't change their laws in the other states, somebody can just go there, put it in the back of a pickup, and come on down.

Huge difference between sportsmen's guns and assault weapons

There is a huge difference between the guns of a sportsman or homeowner and high- powered assault weapons with 100- cartridge magazines. I grew up around guns and gun owners, and I will work to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens. But the law must reflect the reality that, in the wrong hands, guns can be used for violent crimes, making neighbourhoods less safe.
Source: Quotable Elizabeth Warren, by Frank Marshall, p.147 , Nov 18, 2014

Handguns kill 8 kids a day; why don't we mobilize?

We lose 8 children and teenagers to gun violence every day. If a mysterious virus suddenly started killing 8 of our children every day, America would mobilize teams of doctors and public health officials. We would move heaven and earth until we found a way to protect our children. But not so with gun violence.

The politics surrounding this issue make me want to tear my hair out. I know that Americans care fiercely about keeping our kids safe. So why do we toss common sense out the window when it comes to protecting our kids from gun violence?

Of course, not every kid has the same risk of becoming a victim. A large number of those gun deaths are in poor neighborhoods. Gang violence and street crime pose a far smaller threat in well-off suburbs than in gritty inner cities.

Source: A Fighting Chance, by Elizabeth Warren, p.237-8 , Apr 22, 2014

Extend the federal assault weapons ban





Supports gun control

Source: Boston Globe, Noah Bierman and Frank Phillips , Aug 31, 2011


Congressional Summary:




Supports restricting the Second Amendment.

Warren supports the CC Voters Guide question on the Second Amendment



Ban large-capacity ammunition.

Warren co-sponsored Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act

Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act


Other candidates on Gun Control: Elizabeth Warren on other issues:
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Page last updated: Dec 30, 2019