Morse Ashe for hillary

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, left, listens as Sheriff Michael Ashe makes a point during press event Monday in the North End. Morse and Ashe, both backers of Hillary Clinton for president, faulted Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' record on gun legislation.

(Patrick Johnson / The Republican)

SPRINGFIELD - With presidential candidate Bernie Sanders scheduled to speak Monday night in Amherst, local backers of Hillary Clinton, his opponent for the Democratic nomination, staged a press briefing in Springfield to take aim at the Vermont senator's record on gun legislation.

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and Hampden County Sheriff Michael J. Ashe spoke briefly Monday morning from a podium set up at the corner of Wason and Fisk avenues in the city's North End.

Morse and Ashe said the issue of gun reform legislation is critical in Massachusetts and nationwide, and they believe Clinton will give it a greater priority as president than Sanders would.

"We're here to support Hillary Clinton and her reform plans around gun control. Her record supports her ability to get the job done," Morse said.

Ashe said gun violence is a "real, real serious issue" locally and nationally. "Unless we get behind people like Hillary Clinton... we are in a lot of trouble," he said.

Morse said gun legislation is one of the key areas that distinguish Clinton from Sanders.

Clinton, he said, has a strong gun control plan that focuses on three areas: expanded background checks, holding dealers and manufactures responsible for damages caused by their products, and keeping guns out of the hands of "terrorists, domestic abusers, violent criminals and the severely mentally ill."

Morse said "That's a solid plan that's obtainable that Secretary Clinton will no doubt accomplish."

The brief press briefing was sparsely attended. Other than a few members of the press and some campaign workers, no one else was present.

One neighborhood resident who stopped by afterward said she resented her neighborhood being used as a visual backdrop for a discussion of gun violence. A campaign worker told her the location was chosen because its proximity to a medical facility, Baystate Reference Labs, at 100 Wason Ave.

No turn-out of supporters was attributed to an e-mail mix-up that listed a confusing address, a campaign worker said. The email to The Republican and other media said the event would take place in Baystate Reference Labs, Suite 210, which happens to be the Baystate office for organ transplant services.

Morse said Clinton has a strong plan for gun legislation that focuses on three areas: expanded background checks, holding dealers and manufactures responsible for damages caused by their products, and keeping guns out of the hands of "terrorists, domestic abusers, violent criminals and the severely mentally ill."

Morse said "That's a solid plan that's obtainable that Secretary Clinton will no doubt accomplish."

Sanders's record on guns is not nearly as strong, he said.

He cited in particular Sanders, while a member of the House of Representatives in the early 1990s, voted five times against the Brady Bill and mandatory waiting periods for firearm purchases.

He also cited Sanders' support in 2005 for the Protection in Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) which prevents gun manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when people use guns in the commission of violent crime.

"(Sanders) should explain to the people of Massachusetts, as someone who says he wants to hold corporations accountable, why he voted for PLCAA," Morse said. "That was a vote the head of the NRA called one of the most important pieces of legislation for them in decades."

"The people from Western Massachusetts deserve to hear a response why he voted with the NRA on these important topics."

Morse also faulted lax Vermont gun laws and say it contributes to the illegal trafficking of firearms to Massachusetts in exchange for drugs, primarily heroin and opiods.

"Communities in Western Massachusetts like Holyoke face a real problem. in the form of illegal guns from Vermont making their way into the hands of criminal here."

Ashe said that in the Hampden County Correctional Center, there are 241 people sentenced for firearm offense. Half are under age 25, and 90 percent are minorities.

"You can see the gangs and drug trade are what is driving this," he said. "Hillary Clinton is bringing the view that strong comprehensive background checks and making sure it doesn't fall to the criminal element.

"We know what is happening in Vermont with a more liberal stance in gun control," he said. "They are coming down into our cities and getting into the hands of the wrong people."

He cited the arrest this weekend of a man in Kalamazoo, Michigan for randomly shooting 8 people, killing 6, as an example of guns in the hands of the wrong people.