Sanders follows lead of O'Malley, Clinton, calling for wider gun safety reforms on eve of debate

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6. Sen. Sanders's position on guns isn't as progressive as Martin O'Malley's

Last edited Fri Oct 16, 2015, 01:51 PM - Edit history (2)

...Sen. Sanders's position on guns isn't as progressive as Martin O'Malley's own unapologetic support of gun legislation he helped pass in Maryland, making his state the strictest in the nation on gun control. The laws he shepherded through the Md. legislature and signed include:

- Ban on magazines (an ammunition storage and feeding device) that hold more than 10 bullets;
- Ban on 45 types of semiautomatic (weapons that reload automatically but fire only once when the trigger is pulled) rifles, classifying them as assault weapons;
- Requirement that people seeking to buy any gun other than a hunting rifle or shotgun to obtain a license, submit fingerprints to police, undergo a background check and pass classroom and firing-range training;
- Ban on any rifle that has two of three characteristics — 1) Folding stock, which makes the weapon more compact for storage or transport; 2) Grenade launcher; or 3) Flash suppressor, which protects the eyesight of the shooter in low-light shooting conditions.

Sanders has also voted against forcing states to respect concealed-carry permits issued by other states - to allow people to carry hidden guns around without a permit.

Indeed, in Sander's own state of Vermont, in gaining his first seat in the House, the senator once used his less than liberal record on gun control as a wedge against Peter Smith, the Republican incumbent he defeated, who supported a ban on assault weapons.

Although Sanders recently sided with the Obama administration, voting for federal bans on assault weapons and high-capacity clips, his rhetoric on the issue contradicts the sentiment behind such legislation. In 2013 Sanders was making an argument similar to the one he made in an NPR interview which aired on the same day as the ad by the pro-O'Malley pac where he stated that, “If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.”

He echoed that ambivalence to gun control in the NPR interview, stating, "I think that urban America has got to respect what rural America is about, where 99 percent of the people in my state who hunt are law abiding people."

"If anyone thinks that gun control itself is going to solve the problem of violence in this country, you're terribly mistaken. So, obviously, we need strong, sensible gun control and I will support it. But some people think it's going to solve all of our problems. It is not," he said.

"I can understand that if some Democrats or Republicans represent an urban area where people don't hunt, don't do target practice; they're not into guns. But, in my state, people go hunting and people do target practice. Talking about cultural divides in this country, you know, it is important for people in urban America to understand that families go out together and kids go out with their parents and they hunt and they enjoy the outdoors and that is a lifestyle that should not be condemned."

Those comments were obviously aimed at the stance Gov. O'Malley had taken in the wake of the Charleston shooting where he declared how "pissed" he was at "special interests like the NRA." His statement was a courageous reflection of his successful effort to address the issue of gun violence in his own state:

I'm pissed that we’re actually asking ourselves the horrific question of, what will it take? How many senseless acts of violence in our streets or tragedies in our communities will it take to get our nation to stop caving to special interests like the NRA when people are dying?

I'm pissed that after working hard in the state of Maryland to pass real gun control—laws that banned high-magazine weapons, increased licensing standards, and required fingerprinting for handgun purchasers—Congress continues to drop the ball.

It's time we called this what it is: a national crisis.

I proudly hold an F rating from the NRA, and when I worked to pass gun control in Maryland, the NRA threatened me with legal action, but I never backed down.

So now, I'm doubling down, and I need your help. What we did in Maryland should be the first step of what we do as a nation. The NRA is already blaming the victims of yesterday's shooting for their own deaths, saying they too should have been armed. Let's put an end to this madness and finally stand up to them. Here are some steps we should be taking:

1. A national assault weapons ban.

2. Stricter background checks.

3. Efforts to reduce straw-buying, like fingerprint requirements.

Bernie Sanders' response is basically a strawman, suggesting that 'urban' advocates of gun control, like O'Malley' are somehow against responsible gun ownership and use. Nothing in the O'Malley gun control stance and record indicates anything of the sort. Nowhere has he 'condemned' gun owners for 'hunting' or 'target practice' as Sanders insinuated.

Moreover, the line Bernie Sanders is attempting to draw between his own equivocation on gun control and liberal efforts over the years isn't progressive, it's more of a libertarian view than a Democratic one; in effect, straddling that fence on this issue of gun control. That may well be accommodating to moderate and conservative views on gun control, but it's hardly a progressive stance' - well out of line with his supporters' insistence that his politics are unabashedly progressive.

Now, on the eve of the debate, Sanders is advancing his decidedly more progressive stance on gun safety. Good for him, but his record of support is well short of what gun safety advocates have been fighting for.