Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on Sunday said he’s “not that hopeful” for a significant legal change aiming to stem gun violence in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting.
In an interview on NBC News “Meet The Press,” Booker lamented the lack of a national commitment and said he expects no more than incremental legal changes.
“We know enough to know that there are things we can do that will dramatically lower gun violence so the question is — when will we do it?” he asked.
“The problem is — I return again and again to how change has been made in America when your children died. For example a bombing in Birmingham when four little girls died, the nation rallied,” he said.
“Until we demanded change and it was made, those people who did not make the change, civil rights movement, suffrage movement, paid at the polls,” he noted. “Until that happens, we are going to see, at best, incremental change as far as the federal level. I'm not that hopeful.”
Booker insists background checks “make a difference.”
“We know gun licensing, supported by the majority of Americans, make a difference,” he said. “When Connecticut did it, their gun [violence] rate fell 40% and when Missouri got rid of it, their gun rate violence raised 20%. We are at a point we have to mobilize a greater movement.”
But Booker also said change will take time.
“We just passed legislation to make lynching illegal. Took a century to do it,” he said. “But I think this is a movement that is growing. I think what we need now is not professions of sympathy and prayers, we need people to do the hard work of galvanizing these various movements to save our children's lives and to have people off the sidelines and get into the arena.”
Booker also warned the national conversation has to stop talking about margins of agreement or disagreement on issues.
“There are so many issues from police reform to common sense gun safety that the majority of us agree on,” he said.
“We are so out of step with the rest of the world,” he added. “Everything we are talking about today does not happen in other countries. Just here,because we tolerate it and that is the question: How much endurance do we have for horror and wretchedness and pain and death? … we need more people to be engaged.”
Related Stories:
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.