Bill Maher says the 2020 election may get ugly for Democrats if they make gun control one of the party’s primary objectives.

The “Real Time” host recently told his HBO audience that it was time for liberals to “learn more about guns” and stop acting as if their policies are a silver bullet for mass shootings.

“I don’t like guns. [I] have some, don’t like them. [I] have it for [an] emergency, like an antibiotic,” Mr. Maher said during a June 7 broadcast. “Some people do [like them]. Lots of people do and their view is, ‘Yes there is a violence problem with guns, but not me. And you’re going after me.’”

Mr. Maher then told his panel that even if 2020 presidential hopefuls did “everything” Democrats wanted, “you would have this problem because it’s much more complicated than just the mass killers or the type of gun,” Fox News reported.

“I’m just saying I want to win this election and I want to fight it on the issues we’re going to win on,” he said.

The HBO panel focused in particular on New Jersey Sen. and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker, who was recently asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper how his preferred policies would specifically have prevented the May 31 mass shooting at a Virginia Beach, Virginia, municipal building.

“You keep saying we’re not helpless, so I’m saying, what would have prevented this tragedy?” Mr. Tapper asked Mr. Booker during a June 2 appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think that’s one of the issues that people wonder about when there are these horrible tragedies. What steps specifically would have stopped the massacre in Virginia Beach?”

Mr. Booker said his plans would lower “overall” shootings.