Cory Booker’s misleading claim that toy guns are more regulated than real guns

The Fact Checker obviously has no opinion on whether guns should face regulatory oversight for safety or design. But Booker’s comparison of the regulations of toy guns and real guns is specious. In the Medium post, he made clear that when he said “more regulation,” he meant CPSC regulation, not all regulation. The careful language was probably just One or Two Pinocchios. But such nuances were lost when he spoke on television or tweeted about it, pushing himself into the Three Pinocchio range. The CPSC does not regulate guns, but it does regulate toy guns. That does not mean there are “more regulations” of toy guns than real ones. Firearms, at just about every level, are highly regulated in the United States. Booker is calling for another level of regulation, but he can’t suggest toy guns are even more highly regulated.