INTRODUCTION
This is another reason why I support Secretary Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Gun control is a very important issue to me, as I see the gun culture as having created a macabre cycle. There's a mass shooting, and the media and some lawmakers react, which causes the gun culture to purchase more guns, which, in turn, requires police to equip themselves with more military equipment, until the NRA, holding legislators hostage, defeats the proposed gun control measures bringing us back to step one. It looks like this:
It has gotten to the point where the NRA can cockily crow about the need for guns in schools after another gun-in-school massacre. And, in the meantime, the number of guns always increases because the only gun that ever is thrown away is a murder weapon.
A. A Brief Sketch of Gun Control in the United States
Although mild-mannered and jolly, there were three things that Charles Dickens viciously despised about America. Guns made that short list, and after his first visit to the New World in 1842, he became the world's foremost gun control advocate:
"'Why,' said Mark, 'I didn't like him much; and that's the truth, sir. I thought he was a bully; and I didn't admire his carryin' them murderous little persuaders, and being so ready to use 'em.'
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"... [Martin then said:] Are pistols with revolving barrels ... Institutions on which you pride yourselves? Are bloody duels, brutal combats, savage assaults ... your Institutions! Why, I shall hear next, that Dishonour and Fraud are among the Institutions of the great republic!'"
Charles Dickens, MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT, Chapter 34 (1844). The best advocate we have ever had for gun control in America was an Englishman! The second best is an Australian.
Some years after Dickens wrote his books and newspaper articles, after the bloody Civil War, towns like Tombstone and Dodge City practiced mandatory gun control:
" Frontier towns -- places like Tombstone, Deadwood, and Dodge -- actually had the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation.
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[T]here's a photograph taken in Dodge City in 1879. Everything looks exactly as you'd imagine: wide, dusty road; clapboard and brick buildings; horse ties in front of the saloon. Yet right in the middle of the street is something you'd never expect. There's a huge wooden billboard announcing, 'The Carrying of Firearms Strictly Prohibited.'"
In 1927, the federal government joined in the effort with a law that banned the mailing of guns. Other federal laws followed in 1934 (outlawing fully automatic machine guns), in 1938 (requiring Federal Firearms licenses and records of buyers), in 1968 (prohibiting the sale to minors, certain felons and the impaired), in 1972 (creating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), in 1986 (three new laws, including a ban on certain armor-piercing ammunition), and in 1990 (banning semiautomatic weapons and creating gun-free school zones).
B. Why We Need Gun Control.
Death. Guns were made to effect it. They have proven over the centuries to be quite efficacious at causing death. Better, even, than the armies of many nations and the confederacy:
From rampage murder sprees to church shootings to homicides to accidents to accidents involving children to suicides to workplace slaughters, the numbers keep piling up, one after another, almost as fast as we can dig the graves. And, although the dead and their families and friends are our chief concern, there are many others affected.
You see, from 1993 to 2011, there were more than 13 million nonfatal gun victims according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. So, guns haven't been as effective as they could be, but, still, 13 million wounded by gunshots is more than beanbag.
And then there are the suicides.
More prevalent than murder and accidental gunshot deaths combined, suicide ranks as one of the leading causes of death in the United States. More than half of all suicides are the result of gunshot wounds. And many could have been prevented:
"Even when poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, socioeconomic factors, and urbanization were controlled, 'at least a dozen' peer-reviewed studies reviewed in a meta-analysis for the New England Journal of Medicine have found guns to be associated with an increased risk for suicide. These conclusions have been repeated by Harvard University and numerous other institutions."
Do you know somebody who lived because there wasn't a gun handy in their household? I do. Here are the results of one of the studies mentioned above:
On top of all the death, murder, suicide, on top of the wounds and the viscera and the blood streaming out of our collective body, there's the obvious: It is only getting worse. As our national gun cabinet grows larger, so does the body count. The need to control this problem is obvious.
But something happened on our way to sensible gun control.
C. The NRA Takes a Combative Stance, Feet Shoulder-Width Apart, Knees Slightly Bent, Guns Grasped Firmly in Both Hands.
The Gun Culture, nurtured and fed by the NRA and other organizations, quickly became a monster:
“The NRA had once been a sportsman and safety organization, which took a turn toward the political back in the ’70s, just as the conservative movement was gaining steam,” explains Heather Digby Parton of Salon. “By the ’90s it had transformed itself into a potent political institution which perversely thrived when it was attacked, and built its clout by never giving an inch. Ever.”
As noted above, the NRA became more political. They created a Political Victory Fund that was feared among legislators, and which was said to the be the biggest spender in campaign contributions. Then, the group began to show up more often in the hallways of Congress with their NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, which employed lobbyists for face-to-face meetings with members.
D. Mayor Bernie Sanders and the NRA.
The initial relationship between Mayor Sanders and the NRA is documented by the Washington Post. The Post noted that, on behalf of the Burlington Mayor, the NRA "spent between $18,000 and $20,000 on advertising and direct mail in Vermont, according to an estimate from the time."
The money wasn't spent so much for Bernie Sanders, but to get back at his incumbent opponent, who had voted in 1990 to ban assault rifles and create guns-free school zones. What the Post didn't mention in their reporting can be found at OpenSecrets.org: Congressman Sanders' opponents in 2000 and 2002--the earliest records available--spent $0 and $168,845 respectively. This may, or may not, give you an idea of the value of $18-$20k ten years earlier, during a 1990 campaign for Congress in Vermont.
Additionally, the Post did not mention that, in his book, then-Congressman Sanders wrote, "During the 1994 campaign the NRA had played a very forceful role against me. They distributed widely a 'Bye, Bye, Bernie' bumper sticker." Sanders did not indicate why the NRA would have done that in 1994 after he had voted faithfully against the Brady Bill's background checks at least four times between 1991 and 1994.
Whether Bernie Sanders was afraid of seeing more bumper stickers in the future, or whether he wanted to represent the Gun Culture in his state, he continued to provide votes against gun control, with the occasional vote for trigger locks and the banning of semi-automatic assault weapons. Again, using the Open Secrets resource, it doesn't appear that the NRA targeted him with Independent Expenditure funds since at least 2000. If you look at each year on those pages, you will see that the NRA targeted hundreds of other Members of Congress between 2000 and 2015. Congressman, and then Senator, Sanders was not one of them.
E. My Gun Control Rant.
In terms of "hawkish" records, it is my opinion that Senator Sanders' hawkish domestic policy stands out. You see, there have been more than 13 million nonfatal gun victims and more than 242,394 murdered with guns since Senator Sanders first voted against a gun control background check. But, wait. That's not entirely accurate. Those numbers--the 13 million and the 242,394--don't include five missing years' worth of data, and it doesn't include the hundreds of thousands of gun-related suicides.
The issue of gun control is very important to me. I am what some would call a "gun-grabber." With a magic wand, I would sequester every gun other than long rifles and full-sized shotguns in the armory of a registered gun range, tax ammunition by 1,000%, get rid of the gun show loophole and any private sales after a very short grace period, require educational courses for ownership of long guns and shotguns, mandate a deep background check that included reference to psychiatric testing that occurred within the last 12 months (and mental health professionals would not be immune from suit if their diagnosis was negligent), and demilitarize the police.
I'm sorry, but I'm not quite finished. I would also repeal the egregious immunity-from-lawsuit law that Senator Sanders voted for, making people in the gun trade again subject to suit in an American court just like every-fucking-body else, and repeal the votes he cast in favor of guns in National Parks and checked onto Amtrak trains, and I wouldn't give a fuck if background checks took three months--that's what it takes to pass a driving course and take a test for a driver's license--and I would take the current criminal penalties for drug possession and apply them to gun possession, while using the current criminal penalties for gun possession (which are basically nothing unless you're a felon) and apply them to drug possession. (And I'm no fan of illegal drugs).
Finally, I would require gun owners to purchase a separate policy of insurance, and also make them strictly liable for any injuries or death caused by their deathsticks, even if the gun was stolen or borrowed.
The worst part of Senator Sanders' record on guns--and don't give me the NRA rating bullshit because we all know that that is a sliding scale of the touchiest sort and that his rating was much better just a few years ago--is that he was supposed to be the Independent. He was supposed to be the Democratic Socialist. He was one of the guys who could and should have been a leader on the issue of gun control.
Instead, he became a leading example of how the NRA dictates American policy. What were other lawmakers to think? "Well, if Bernie Sanders, the supposed Independent and Democratic Socialist from Vermont, a reliably blue state, can't stand up to the NRA, where shall I find the courage?"
There are a total of 437 gun dealers in Vermont that have a federal firearms license. Compare that to Ohio, which has 3,090, or New York, with 2,234, or for a better comparison, Connecticut, with 661. Were 437 gun shop owners and a few bumper stickers enough to scare off Bernie Sanders? This was the record of Connecticut's Chris Dodd when it came to gun control:
The second worst aspect of the Senator's pro-gun record was how the NRA, through him and others, methodically destroyed any checks on the entire gun industry. First, there was the "Dickey Amendment" to the 1996 appropriations bill that basically warned the CDC off of researching murders, accidental deaths or suicides involving guns. Then, there was the law that made it impossible for private citizens to sue basically anyone involved in the gun trade. Finally, there's the law that made it harder for the ATF to punish law-breaking gun dealers. This methodical attack has ensured that neither scientists, nor civilians, nor the government, can hold the gun industry responsible.
The third worst aspect of the Senator's pro-gun record was the timing. Just as the NRA and other Gun Culture organizations began to use high-pressure tactics in their lobbying and campaign spending, there was Senator Sanders to cave to their demands.
The fourth worst aspect of his pro-gun record is that Senator Sanders will not admit he was wrong. When confronted with this appalling record by Governor O'Malley and Secretary Clinton at the debate in front of fifteen million viewers, the best he could do was to say he would "take another look at" the grant of civil lawsuit immunity to gun dealers and manufacturers.
The fifth worst aspect of his voting and speaking record is the naiveté and hypocrisy. He claims that he is the one who can act as "a bridge" and negotiate reasonable gun control. Remember, though, that he's the same person who claimed that President Obama made a mistake in negotiating with Republicans on the Hill. Yet, he's going to negotiate with Republicans on the Hill ... and the NRA ... on guns?
The sixth worst aspect of Bernie Sanders' pro-gun record is that he has made it a horse-race issue. When Democrats should be coalescing around deeper gun control, he has set a bad example for his supporters, many of whom now say that gun control isn't that big of an issue to them:
"[I]f they blindly follow his lead without noting his faults, they may end up abetting legislation that runs against the tidal wave of scientific literature on gun control and expands the public health crisis."
Seven days after nine African-American church-goers were killed in a church in Charleston, South Carolina this past June, Senator Sanders said that "some people think [gun control is] going to solve all of our problems, and it's not."
This is what I have to say about that:
To evolve as a nation we have to move past the NRA and gun culture. Senator Sanders stood in the way.
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