AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Sen. Cory Booker is one of a number of Democrats who want to be the next president. Spartacus believes that he has what it takes to unseat Donald Trump from the Oval Office.

However, belief won’t be enough. Booker will have to demonstrate an understanding of the issues.

Based on this video of him at a recent town hall, though, when it comes to guns, he’s even dumber than I thought.

So… Cory Booker did not brush up on gun laws or his gun knowledge before his big town hallpic.twitter.com/56i3wXVOBB

— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) March 28, 2019

Let’s take this point by point.

“If a man is convicted of beating his wife, he can find a loophole to go out and buy a gun and murder her.”

Uh…no he can’t.

A loophole implies legality in committing an action. Convicted domestic abusers are prohibited by federal law from buying a gun from anyone. No loophole allows him to do that legally. None whatsoever.

“[L]ike the loophole that says someone on the terrorist No Fly List in our country can still go to a gun show and buy weapons…”

That’s not a loophole; it’s a matter of due process.

Names are put on the No Fly list with absolutely no due process. More importantly, people also get tripped up trying to fly because their name–but not them–appears on that list. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy was perhaps the most famous example of this issue.

The problem with No Fly-No Buy isn’t that terrorists might buy guns. Frankly, terrorists are more likely to get guns than any other criminal element in this country, even if we completely banned them. No, the problem is that the list will block law-abiding Americans who share nothing with terrorists except a name will be barred from buying guns.

A disproportionate number of those affected will be of Middle Eastern descent, which also suggests that Booker’s focus on this is racist. (At least based on the rules the right has to play by.)

“…or that somebody convicted of a violent crime can still find a loophole to go and buy a weapon.”

Well, according to the Department of Justice, that “loophole” is called “the black market.”

After all, that’s where violent criminals continually get their guns. As the DOJ notes, they’re not going to gun shows or buying them off the internet–two other famous “loopholes” that get thrown around a lot without actually existing–they’re buying them off the black market or stealing them themselves.

Convicted criminals aren’t buying them even from face-to-face transfers from law-abiding citizens, either. Why? Because they don’t want a citizen to identify them. After all, what if the police find out that the gun was sold to Joe Smith, but Joe says he sold it to someone else? Joe is a law-abiding citizen, so the idea of the gun he sold being used in a crime is upsetting. Why yes, Officer, I can give you a description of the guy. In fact, I still have his cell phone number.

That’s bad news in Criminal Land.

Booker’s sitting there lamenting “loopholes” which don’t exist. He’s conflating people getting guns illegally with rules that would inhibit law-abiding citizens from buying guns and treating them all the same. He’s making it clear that to him, the real loophole is that people can purchase any firearm whatsoever.

And it’s why Booker isn’t going to be president at this rate.