While none of the candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination can be said to be anything but bad on Second Amendment rights, there’s always that one.

Eric “Duke Nukem” Swalwell ran his low-single-digit campaign on a platform of enforcing unconstitutional edicts with overwhelming military force. He was the stalking horse for other, more credible candidates.

Once Swalwell was laughed out of the race, Robert Francis O’Rourke became the low-polling equine extra; “Hell yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15.” Extra, exit; stage left.

I believe Cory Booker is the next understudy to assume the stalking horse role, so let’s see what he’s been up to while being upstaged by the others.

Cory Booker Confronts Meghan McCain, Says Guns Have Killed More Americans ‘In My Lifetime Than in Every Single War Combined’

“We’ve had more people die in America in my lifetime than in every single war combined.”

And several times as many killed by medical misadventure; 200,000 to 400,000 every year. Shall we ban doctors?

“Machine guns—we don’t have them on the streets anymore, because in the 1980s, we banned them. We had a practical way to do that.”

Well, ignoring for the moment that FOPA only banned new machineguns, we never had very many “on the street.” I’ve only found five confirmed criminal uses of machines since 1934, all but one of which was after passage of FOPA.

But…

“Shahad Smith was killed on my block by an assault rifle last year.”

Wait. Booker just told us that we don’t have machineguns on the streets anymore, but then claims Smith was killed “by” a machinegun? (Of course, we know he meant “assault weapon,” but deliberately used the wrong term to sow confusion in the minds of the uniformed.)

And this brings us to the real meat of Booker’s position. His citation of the Shahad Smith case is very telling. Who was he?

Smith, the sort of person whom Booker believes should have been protected by restrictions on lawful firearms owners, was a convicted felon with a history of arrests on drug and assault charges.

Just think, Booker thinks that fine criminal could still be walking around if only his proposed victim disarmament laws had been in place. Except…New Jersey already has an “assault weapon” ban. Yet the law didn’t save him from other criminals.

And Booker knows it.

“What I saw when I was mayor is how easy it is for criminals to get their hands on guns,” said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. “People who would not pass a background check, how easy it was for them to still get a gun.”

Ah, the Democrats’ notion of less extreme positions.

Swalwell: I’ll send the military to kill you.

O’Rourke: I’ll only steal your stuff, and send the police to kill you.

And now the “more reasonable” Booker: Only honest people obey laws, so I’ll steal their stuff and let my criminal constituency steal the rest.

Booker will milk that for campaign donations until the return on the time investment eventually forces him to drop out of the race, too. Then we’ll see who is the next candidate ordered to fall on his or her sword.