SCOOP: James Talarico Is Even More Anti-Gun Than We Thought
Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico expressed his support for a gun licensing system, mandated safety standards for handguns and a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms in a rarely-seen 2020 webinar recording.
Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico expressed his support for a gun licensing system, mandated safety standards for handguns and a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms in a rarely-seen 2020 webinar recording.
Talarico, who has attempted to backtrack on views regarding child sex changes and illegal immigration, defeated Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett during the March 3 Democratic primary for the party’s nomination for the United States Senate seat held by outgoing Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn. In the Sept. 1, 2020, online event hosted by South Asian American Voter Empowerment (SAAVE) Texas (which had less than 50 views as of 1:27 p.m. EDT Thursday), Talarico expressed support for restrictions on gun rights, including previously unreported comments in which he backed an unspecified “tiered” licensing requirement for gun owners.
“A lot of politicians like to talk about the Second Amendment. Very few have actually read the Second Amendment, because if they did they would know that the words ‘well regulated’ are right there in the text of the amendment itself, and so like any right that we have in our Constitution, it’s not unlimited, and it’s not absolute,” Talarico claimed. “We have freedom of speech but we don’t have the freedom to yell fire in a crowded theater. We have the freedom of assembly but we don’t have the freedom to gather in any public place without a permit, and the same is true of the Second Amendment.”
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“There’s a right to bear arms but it’s not unlimited and we can put commonsense restrictions and limitations on that right. And polling shows that the vast majority of Americans and of Texans from both political parties agree with that assessment,” Talarico continued. “Unfortunately, because of broken campaign finance laws, most of our policy makers at the federal and the state level are beholden to the gun lobby, in particular the NRA, who funds their campaigns and that is what’s preventing commonsense legislation from making its way through the process that vast majorities of voters support. … We actually came to some agreement on some policies that both he and I could support, including universal background checks, including closing the gun show loophole, including a tiered certification system for gun licensure.”
In the webinar, Talarico also expressed support for a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms and standard-capacity magazines, although he did not specify a specific number of rounds that made a magazine “large-capacity.”
“I wish I had the ability to set the priorities for the Texas Legislature, so I can only speak for myself and my office,” Talarico said. “I think universal background checks, I think closing the gun show loophole, assault weapon ban, large capacity magazine ban, I think restricting large firearm purchases, I think even we should start to think about handgun design safety standards as well. So probably in that order are the things I’m most interested in championing and working on.”
Talarico, who has a pro-gun control record from his time in the Texas House of Representatives, did not provide specifics during the webinar about how he would sort firearms into tiers for the licensing scheme and did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
SAAVE Texas appeared to disable playback of the previously unreported video on other websites after the DCNF requested comment from Talarico’s campaign. SAAVE Texas didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Talarico’s publicly-stated positions on his campaign website claim he seeks to “protect the Second Amendment while protecting our neighbors from gun violence,” but his record paints a more hostile picture toward the right to keep and bear arms. Talarico received the endorsement of Everytown (a gun control group supported by billionaire Michael Bloomberg) on March 3, according to Project Vote Smart.
Pro-Second Amendment organizations hammered Talarico’s comments during the online event, accusing him of targeting law-abiding gun owners and viewing gun rights as “second-class.”
“If the founding fathers had James Talarico’s views on gun control we’d all be sipping tea and singing ‘God Save the King’ today instead of enjoying America’s 250th birthday. His long history of supporting the Democratic Socialists’ playbook on gun control would make Chuck Schumer and Michal Bloomberg blush,” National Association for Gun Rights Vice President Ryan Flugaur told the DCNF. “James Talarico treats the Second Amendment as a second-class right every chance he gets. On guns, he’s out of step with Texans, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution. His policies will make Texas and America more dangerous.”
“Clearly Talarico has drunk the gun control Kool-Aid and is willing to say anything to bolster his position,” Jeff Knox of the Firearms Coalition told the DCNF. “As a native Texan, I am sorely disappointed that the state is even considering such an out of touch, anti-rights extremist for any position of public trust. The world is dumber for having listened to Talarico’s disturbing and intentionally ignorant statements regarding the Second Amendment. I’m confident that Texas voters will reject this charlatan and send him packing.”
Gun Owners of America Texas Director Leigh Gibson weighed in on Talarico’s proposed licensing scheme.
“Representative Talarico’s proposal would turn a constitutional right into a government permission slip. Texans should not have to climb a bureaucratic ladder or earn a state-approved ranking before they can fully exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Gibson said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “The Constitution does not create first-class and second-class citizens, and GOA will oppose any attempt to treat law-abiding gun owners that way. The answer to violent crime is enforcing the law against violent criminals, not creating more hoops for peaceable Texans who already follow it.”
The National Rifle Association condemned Talarico’s positions and accused him of being a “committed gun-control extremist” who was trying to “pose as a moderate” on the Second Amendment.
“Talarico supports banning semi-automatic firearms, standard-capacity magazines, and imposing new government restrictions on everyday gun purchases, while pushing a tiered licensing scheme that would let anti-gun bureaucrats decide who is ‘moral’ enough to exercise their constitutional rights,” NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford said. “These are not the ideas of a pragmatist—they are the agenda of someone who fundamentally distrusts law-abiding gun owners and wants to turn the Second Amendment into a heavily regulated government privilege.”
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