opinion

Analysis: When the NRA liked Bernie Sanders best

Bernie Sanders delivers a forceful message as the push to enact stricter gun regulations continues around the country in the wake of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Florida high school.

“We have a major epidemic of gun violence,” Sanders told the Free Press on April 3, echoing a message he has delivered repeated in recent weeks. “No one has any magical way to solve that problem. We have hundreds of millions of guns in this country. We have got to do everything we can.”

But Vermont’s independent senator also has a gun problem.

For years, Sanders has been dogged by questions about his long-term record on gun control, with Hillary Clinton hitting him hard on the issue during the 2016 Democratic primary.

“This is what happens when you’re in politics,” Sanders said. “I ran in an election, and when you run in an election, people start attacking you.”

Sanders said he has advocated for banning assault weapons as far back as 1988, when he came in second running against a Democrat and a Republican for the U.S. House.

“It is possible I may have lost that election because the gun people were supporting both of the other candidates and not me,” he said.

But this is where the story gets complicated.

In 1990, Sanders made another bid for the House, facing off against incumbent Republican Peter Smith. By that election, Smith had reversed his position and came out in favor of the assault weapons ban.

That led NRA chief Wayne LaPierre -- yes, that Wayne LaPierre -- to write, “Bernie Sanders is a more honorable choice for Vermont sportsmen than ­Peter Smith.”

Sanders explains: “This was not a question of gaining the support of the NRA, it was the NRA feeling they were betrayed by Peter who changed his views.”

Sanders went on to defeat Smith -- 56 percent to 39.5 percent. As the Washington Post reported on July 19, 2015, “As a candidate in 1990, Sanders won over gun rights groups by promising to oppose one bill they hated — a measure that would establish a waiting period for handgun sales. In Congress, he kept that promise.”

Today, Sanders’ stand on guns shows no such ambiguities.

“We have to significantly improve and expand background checks,” he said. “We have to do away with the gun show loophole, we have to do away with the so-called straw man provision which allows people to buy guns legally and sell them to people who should not have them and, as I have said for 30 years, I think that military style weapons designed to kill human beings should not be sold or distributed in the United States.”

As Gov. Phil Scott prepares to sign a law imposing new gun regulations in Vermont, Sanders sees merit in states going forward on their own. But he maintains the ultimate responsibility lies with Washington.

“I hope that states go forward and I strongly support what Vermont is doing. I applaud the Legislature for doing that,” he said. “But at the end of the day, Congress is going to have to act and Trump and the Republican leadership cannot simply be beholden to the NRA.”

Contact Engagement Editor Aki Soga at asoga@freepressmedia.com. Join the conversation online at BurlingtonFreePress.com or send a letter to the editor to letters@freepressmedia.com.

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