AP Photo Sanders to co-sponsor bill repealing gun industry protections he supported

Sen. Bernie Sanders completed his walkback on guns Thursday with a move to co-sponsor a bill that repeals gun industry protections he backed in 2005.

Tad Devine, his senior strategist, confirmed that Sanders will sign onto repealing a bill that gives gunmakers and manufacturers unusual immunity from liability. Hillary Clinton has hammered Sanders for his 2005 vote in favor of the measure, arguing that he caved to the firearms lobby at a time when Democratic primary voters overwhelmingly back more gun control.


Sanders had said repeatedly that he was open to “changes” in the liability protection law. His official change of heart came just hours after his Senate staff met with activists from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. It also came a day after he met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. While it’s unclear whether the question of gun control came up in that meeting, Obama has urged people to be “single-issue voters” on guns, and in an op-ed in The New York Times, Obama said he would not support even Democrats who don’t share his positions on guns, including industry liability.

In explaining his 2005 vote for the liability shield, known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, Sanders has pointed to the fact that his predominantly rural home state of Vermont has few gun restrictions. In what he called a “complicated vote,” the Democratic presidential candidate said he was trying to protect mom-and-pop gun dealers in his state from getting sued and having to shut down because a customer used the gun in a crime.

Clinton, on the other hand, has mocked the idea that Sanders’ vote was complicated.

"It was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in America,” Clinton said in the Democratic debate earlier this month. “Everybody else has to be accountable, but not the gun manufacturers. And we need to stand up and say enough of that.”

Brady Campaign president Dan Gross thanked Sanders for backing the repeal, adding in a statement, “However, cosponsoring a bill means more than simply signing a piece of paper — Senator Sanders now has an obligation to lead the effort to force a vote in the Senate and usher this bill to final passage.”

Sanders’ waffling on the issue threatens to undercut one of his most fundamental contrasts with Clinton: authenticity and, as he’s claimed when discussing his early opposition to the Iraq War and Keystone XL pipeline, good judgment. One of the original sponsors of the immunity repeal viewed Sanders’ motives for reconsidering his position with skepticism.

“I appreciate his change of heart on gun policy and we’ll hopefully have his support on his legislation,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) in an interview Wednesday, before Sanders had made up his mind. “The people that pushed that [immunity] bill said it wouldn’t bar the courtroom doors to victims, and that’s exactly what ended up happening. And you didn’t need a presidential campaign to figure that out."

Gabriel Debenedetti contributed to this report.