Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has taken heat for accepting the NRA’s support early in his political career and his vote for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The left-leaning mainstream media has fixed on Bernie’s supposedly pro-gun stance as his achilles heel. On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Sanders trotted-out his usual defense – with a twist. “Coming from a rural state, I think I can communicate with folks coming from urban states, where guns mean different things than they do in Vermont, where [they are] used for hunting.” In fact, Bernie’s morphed from a “guns are OK for self-defense in rural areas” to a proper “guns are for hunting” Fudd. Check it out . . .
Nobody should have a gun who has a criminal background, was involved in domestic abuse situations. People should not have guns who are going to hurt other people, who are unstable . . . We need to make sure that certain types of guns used to kill people, exclusively, not for hunting, should not be sold in the United States of America.
Given Sanders’ support for a ban on AR-15-style semi-automatic firearms (a.k.a., “assault rifles”), we have to assume that he doesn’t know these guns are used for hunting. Given that level of ignorance, we also have to assume that Sanders doesn’t consider handguns suitable for hunting.
So, in the worst of all possible political worlds, where President Sanders was freed from parochial politics and Republican “intransigence” on gun rights, would Sanders ban handguns? I’m thinking yes. You?