Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Swalwell says in Las Vegas he’d support licensing gun owners

Swalwell

Andrew Harnik / AP

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., poses for a portrait on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 11, 2019.

Democratic presidential candidate Eric Swalwell said Wednesday that he would support laws in every state requiring gun owners to be licensed and wants to explore requiring gun owners to carry insurance.

Swalwell detailed some of his plans for tackling gun violence during a campaign appearance in Las Vegas, the city where the country's deadliest mass shooting in modern history occurred.

Swallwell, who represents a San Francisco-area seat in Congress, met with a small group of voters, members of advocacy group Moms Demand Action and state Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, who recently sponsored gun control legislation and survived the 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a Las Vegas music festival.

Swalwell, a former prosecutor, has been struggling at the bottom of the crowded Democratic field but has made a focus on gun violence one of his key campaign initiatives.

While other candidates in the crowded Democratic field have unveiled plans to combat gun violence, Swalwell is so far the only candidate that's proposed a national buyback of assault weapons. He plans to unveil his full firearm policy next week.

In addition to looking at requiring gun owners to be licensed and carry insurance, Swalwell on Wednesday also said he'd like to look at removing legal protections that keep gun sellers and manufacturers from being sued by victims and their families.