Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on Sunday said he would support a ban on semiautomatic weapons — the strongest stance the Democratic governor has taken on gun control as he weighs a possible run for the 2020 presidential election.

Bullock told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” that firearm owners and those who want more gun control have the same goal: keeping their families safe.


“If we really step back for a minute, I think most folks that live in Montana and elsewhere that are firearm owners want to keep themselves and their families safe. It’s not unlike folks who say that all these school tragedies and everything that’s been happening,” he said.

“What do they really want? Those same values.”

Bullock in May wrote in an op-ed in the Great Falls Tribune that he would support universal background checks. That stance was much stronger than a statement he made in his 2016 reelection campaign, when he said that he opposed universal background checks and he had actually expanded gun rights during his tenure as governor. (Bullock won reelection in his state at the same time President Donald Trump was routing Hillary Clinton by more than 20 percentage points.)

During the CNN interview, Bullock said there need to continue to be red flag laws, universal background checks, and even age and magazine restrictions.


“Let’s begin with everybody wants to keep themselves and their family safe and let’s try to find those values so we can move those things forward,” he said.