Slate.com took a comprehensive look a Bernie’s voting record on guns and it’s downright disgraceful to anyone calling themselves a progressive.
Slates Title: "Bernie Sanders, Gun Nut - He supported the most reprehensible pro-gun legislation in recent memory." http://www.slate.com/...
Their words, not mine. Look at his NRA voting record according to Slate:
During his time in Congress, Sanders opposed several moderate gun control bills. He also supported the most odious NRA–backed law in recent memory—one that may block Sandy Hook families from winning a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the gun used to massacre their children.
VOTED AGAINST BRADY ACT
In 1993, then-Rep. Sanders voted against the Brady Act, which mandated federal background checks for gun purchasers and restricted felons’ access to firearms.
VOTED TO ALLOW GUNS ON TRAINS
As a senator, Sanders supported bills to allow firearms in checked bags on Amtrak trains.
BLOCK FUNDING TO EVEN FOREIGN AID ORGANIZATIONS THAT REGISTERED GUNS
Blocked funding to any foreign aid organization that registered or taxed Americans’ guns.
INSULTED THE SANDY HOOK FAMILIES WITH THIS IGNORANCE
Sanders is dubious that gun control could help prevent gun violence, telling one interviewer after Sandy Hook 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 has since endorsed some modest gun control measures.)
SANDERS HORRIBLE VOTE TO SUPPORT GUN DEALERS AND MANUFACTURERS
Sanders’ vote for a different kind of pro-gun bill is more puzzling—and profoundly disturbing. In 2005, a Republican-dominated Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). This law doesn’t protect gun owners; it protects gun manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers. The PLCAA was the No. 1 legislative priority of the National Rifle Association for years, because it shields gun makers and dealers from most liability when their firearms are used criminally. It is one of the most noxious pieces of pro-gun legislation ever passed. And Bernie Sanders voted for it. (Sanders’ campaign has not replied to a request for comment.)
THE HORRIBLE EFFECT OF BERNIE'S DISGRACEFUL VOTES
Before the PLCAA, most states imposed some form of tort liability on gun makers and sellers. If a gun manufacturer made an assault rifle that could slaughter dozens of people in a few seconds, for instance, one of its victims might sue the company for negligently making a gun that could foreseeably be used for mass murder. If a gun seller sold a gun to a customer without performing any kind of background check—and then the buyer opened fire on the subway—his victims might sue that seller for negligently providing a gun to a mentally unstable person. The standards in each state differed, but the bottom line remained the same: Victims of gun violence and their families could recover financially from the people and companies who negligently enabled gun violence.
The PLCAA changed all that. Remarkably, the act wiped out gun liability laws in all 50 states, rendering them invalid except for a handful of narrow exceptions. (So much for states’ rights.) Thanks to the law, victims of mass shootings are barred from suing the companies that produced a wartime weapon that no civilian could ever need. With few exceptions, victims cannot sue a gun seller for negligently providing a semiautomatic weapon to a lunatic who shoots them in a movie theater. Even if a jury decides a gun maker or seller should be liable, the PLCAA invalidates its verdict. The law tramples upon states’ rights, juries’ rights, and fundamental precepts of America’s civil justice system. And it received Bernie Sanders’ support—in both 2003 (when it was first introduced) and 2005 (when it finally passed).
Bernie's record on guns is so right-wing that the wingnut Daily Caller wrote this about him: "Bernie Sanders, Second Amendment Socialist?" They captured this statement from Bernie:
“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,” Sanders told a liberal Vermont outlet after the Sandy Hook shootings. http://dailycaller.com/...
Really?
What is Bernie Sanders?
Seriously.
I would love to hear some of his supporters defend this record.