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Questions about gun control are finally being asked in these presidential debates, and the first candidate to bear direct criticism is Bernie Sanders in tonight’s CNN Democratic debate. From Anderson Cooper’s question, it doesn’t seem like Sanders has the best gun control record:
You voted against the Brady Bill, mandated background checks, and a waiting period. You also supported allowing riders to bring guns in checked bags on Amtrak trains. For a decade, you said holding gun manufacturers legally responsible for mass shootings is a bad idea. Now you say you’re reconsidering that. Which is it – shield the companies from lawsuits or not?
Sanders begs to differ though, even speaking in the third person to emphasize his disagreement: “Let’s begin, Anderson, by understanding that Bernie Sanders has a D-minus voting record from the NRA,” before quickly bringing it back to better healthcare coverage.
On Cooper’s prodding that he may want to protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits, he says:
Of course not. This was a large and complicated bill. There were provisions in it that I think made sense. For example, do I think that a gun shop in the state of Vermont that sells legally a gun to somebody, and that somebody goes out and does something crazy, that the gun shop owner should be held responsible? I don’t. On the other hand, where you have manufacturers and where you have gun shops knowingly giving guns to criminals, or aiding or abetting that, of course we should take action.
When Cooper asks frontrunner Hillary Clinton whether Sander is tough enough on guns, she gives a flat “No, not at all,” and then singles out Sanders voting for an immunity provision for gun manufacturers:
I voted against it. I was in the Senate at the same time. It wasn’t that complicated to me. It was pretty straightforward to me, that he was gonna give immunity to the only industry in America–everybody else has to be accountable, but not the gun manufacturers. And we need to stand up and say “enough of that, we’re not gonna let it continue.”
