By: Teresa Mull

Democrats vying for the presidency in 2020 have been saying some pretty extreme things about gun control and the Second Amendment. Cory Booker, New Jersey’s junior U.S. Senator, just became the frontrunner in “lies the left tells about guns to mislead the public” by claiming, “Nowadays, there is more regulation over toy guns than real ones.”

Booker has made this ridiculous statement repeatedly. During a CNN interview, he said, “We have different regulations for toy guns and no regulations for weapons on our streets that are killing so many people.”

Clearly, Booker has purchased neither a toy gun nor a real one lately, the latter of which is not surprising considering he resides in the state with some of the worst gun laws in the nation.

"It’s no surprise a New Jersey politician would make such a boneheaded comment demonstrating ignorance about all the hoops law-abiding Americans have to jump through to just exercise their Second Amendment rights," Ryan Flugaur, Director of Federal Affairs for the National Association for Gun Rights, told Gunpowder Magazine.

embanstandyourgroundlegislation

Politico rated Booker’s claim “mostly false,” noting, “His claim only factors in consumer safety standards and discounted a volume of federal, state and local laws and rules regulating the sales and distribution of firearms, which are more restrictive than and outnumber those regulating toy guns.”

“It’s just wrong to say that there is more regulation over toy guns than real ones,” Eugene Volokh, law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, told Politico.

A person doesn’t have to go through a background check to purchase a toy gun, nor are people limited to a certain number of toy gun purchases within a given period. Toy guns are not limited in their scope of “ammo” capacity, nor does one have to get a permit to own one.

Breitbart summed it up succinctly:

Booker’s hyperbole about toy guns vs. real guns misses the point that the purchase and lawful use of a real gun are among some of most regulated exercises of a natural right in our nation today.

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].