Booker: Shut Down Gun Shows and Private Sales, Cut Rate of Women Murdered

Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker contended that closing down private gun sales would dramatically cut the number of domestic violence slayings.

“What we see in Newark is that law abiding citizens buying guns are not causing the crime. It is that criminals can so easily get their hands on guns,” Booker said last night on MSNBC. “…You have an overwhelming majority of gun owners agree with instant background checks, agree that we should end the gun show loophole and end these secondary markets.”

“The best data point I have on this is that when you close down these so-called secondary markets, gun shows and the like, murders against women — there’s incredible data that one out of two women who are murdered are murdered by somebody they know. When you shut down these secondary markets, that goes down by 40 percent,” he added.

“Every single night I go to bed, every single morning I wake up with having to face the reality of runaway access to guns by criminals in America. Let’s do what we all agree on, shut that down, make it more difficult for people to get their hands on guns, and begin to make our cities safer in America.”

Booker may have been referring to cases like the pending lawsuit against Armslist.com for listing a .40-caliber handgun that a stalker used to shoot Jitka Vesel 12 times last year. The family is suing through the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, saying the website should be held accountable even though the private seller of the gun, knowingly making an illegal gun sale to an out-of-state resident, was sentenced to a year behind bars. Armslist also posted the gun that was sold to a man who killed his wife and two others in a Milwaukee spa last October.

Booker has been trying to push his agenda while deflecting attacks from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), the 88-year-old senator Booker has the intention of defeating next year.

The mayor said his intention to seek the seat “is still at the preliminary stages” as “this is 18 months away. It is a long time. All of New Jersey, we should not be talking about Senate races.”

Still, he added a year — or several days, since Lautenberg’s birthday is Jan. 23 — to the oldest senator in Congress in his MSNBC appearance.

“You want to give him strength right now, because there are tough battles for Democratic senators,” Booker said. “He is a lion. People say he is 89 years old, but anybody who knows Frank Lautenberg, there is a lot of fight.”