“You would like people to sell them back to the government so that you can make sure people who shouldn't have access to these weapons couldn't have them," Kirsten Gillibrand said of a federal buyback program. | Charlie Neibergall 2020 Elections Gillibrand suggests support for mandatory buyback of assault weapons

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Wednesday suggested she supports a mandatory federal buyback program for assault weapons and criminal prosecution for gun owners who do not sell those firearms to the government — a proposal the vast majority of her fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have been reluctant to embrace.

“I think we should ban assault weapons as well as large magazines, and as part of passing that ban, do a buyback program across the country so that those who own them can be ... compensated for their money that they spent. But I think both of those ideas are strong,” Gillibrand told CNN.


“You don't want people to retain them because if you make them illegal, you don't want to grandfather in all the assault weapons that are all across America,” Gillibrand said when pressed on whether such a buyback program should be mandatory. “You would like people to sell them back to the government so that you can make sure people who shouldn't have access to these weapons couldn't have them.”

All of the roughly two dozen Democrats vying to challenge President Donald Trump in next year’s election have called for some version of an assault weapons ban, with many favoring a voluntary federal buyback program for gun owners who choose to relinquish their firearms.

The mandatory buyback proposal — which critics denounce as tantamount to gun confiscation — was most forcefully championed in the Democratic primary by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who established gun violence as one of the defining issues of his campaign before exiting the race in July.

Apart from Gillibrand, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told POLITICO earlier this month he supports a mandatory buyback program. Sen. Cory Booker also appeared to advocate for the measure when asked about it in May, telling CNN: “We should have a law that bans these weapons, and we should have a reasonable period in which people can turn in these weapons.”