Cory Booker slams 'false debate' over gun control

Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Sunday said the current debate over gun control had been contrived to divide Americans. He insisted both gun owners and advocates of gun control agreed on certain common solutions.

"I don't know if anybody here has seen anybody shot, I have," he said on ABC's This Week. "I don't know if anybody here has had to put their hand in somebody's chest and try to stop the bleeding so somebody doesn't die, I have. And the what frustrates me about this debate is it's a false debate, it's a false debate."

"This is a convenient trick to try to divide our country more. Most of us in America, including gun owners, agree on things that would stop the kind of carnage that's going on in cities all over America."

Booker said he had no problem with law-abiding citizens owning firearms. His concern was with unregulated gun sales on secondary markets, such as private sales and gun shows. The Newark mayor noted that those who bought a firearm off the secondary market did not need to undergo a background check.

"And when you poll NRA members you poll NRA members, 74 percent agree that nobody in America should be able to buy a gun without doing a background check. So let's stop the false debate."

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by ABC News, below: