Hillary Clinton and her allies have long noted that Bernie Sanders voted for a loophole that would have allowed individuals to purchase guns within one day of starting the buying process. | Getty Debate poised to open new front in Clinton-Sanders gun control clash Differences on gun policy come into sharp relief as Democrats prep for last forum before Iowa.

Democrats on both sides of the Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders divide are bracing for the next front in the two presidential candidates' raging gun control clash — Charleston, South Carolina, where nine African-American church members were shot and killed in June.

The venue for Sunday's debate is just one block from Emanuel A.M.E. Church, where the tragedy took place, heightening emotions surrounding gun policy.


But at issue — as the race tightens and Clinton paints Sanders as out of step with Democrats and President Barack Obama on gun control — is a new point of contention that stands to put Sanders on the defensive: the Vermont senator’s 1993 vote on a measure that’s been known as the “Charleston Loophole” ever since the summer shootings.

It’s expected to become a new tack in Clinton’s argument — which has become increasingly aggressive as her lead evaporates in New Hampshire and Iowa — intended to erode Sanders’ popularity with Democratic primary voters. And it’s a pitch that would come timed to shore up Clinton’s support with South Carolina Democrats, among whom Clinton continues to lead Sanders by wide margins in polling.

Clinton and her allies have long noted that Sanders voted for a loophole that would have allowed individuals to purchase guns within one day of starting the buying process, regardless of the status of a background check — a measure that’s been tied to Charleston since Dylann Roof took advantage of the final version to buy the gun used in the June shooting. (The measure was eventually tweaked to cover a three-day, instead of one-day, waiting period.) But that vote has not been at the center of their criticisms of Sanders until now.

“There is likely going to be a difference in their records that Hillary is going to highlight, and quite frankly, it should be a highlight,” Dan Gross, president of the Clinton-backing Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told POLITICO, pointing to the Charleston loophole as a red flag in Sanders' record. “It's fair game to question the extent to which somebody is strongly supportive of expanding background checks that they didn't vote for in the first place."

For Sanders’ part, his campaign is well aware of the likelihood that the loophole becomes a flash point in the coming days, said Chris Covert, Sanders’ state director in South Carolina.

“Obviously, we’re thinking about it. My son goes to school five blocks away from where the shooting took place, I know people who go to that church,” he said. “That, obviously, will be something that will be brought up. But I think we’ve been very crystal clear about where the senator stands on this."

Much of the debate over Sanders’ gun control stance has thus far focused on his votes against versions of the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act and his 2005 vote to limit liability on gun manufacturers. But Clinton signaled her intentions Tuesday by tying together Sanders’ 1993 votes against the Brady bill and for an amendment that shortened the waiting period to the Charleston shooting — a claim verified on Thursday by The Washington Post’s fact checker — and her allies are poised to take that argument further.

“There was a loophole, my opponent voted for it, Sen. Sanders, that at the end of three days, business days, you get that gun whether they have finished the background check or not,” she told CNN. “The killer in Charleston who bought that gun — if they had spent a little more time, it would’ve been discovered. He should not have been able to buy the gun because he had a federal record."

Clinton has recently sought to link herself to the White House — which has been actively focusing on gun control in recent weeks — with a series of statements and a new ad, and she has looked to highlight the differences between Sanders’ gun policies and Obama’s.

Sanders’ team has fought back by insisting the senator’s position on guns is similar to Obama’s. And as the tone of the race has become increasingly chippy, Sanders has tried pivoting away from the gun argument, mounting a recent offense over Wall Street reform.

“In the heat of a campaign, a lot of things are said about people’s records, unfortunately, that are untrue,” said Covert. “And I think we have done whatever we can so far to paint a picture of his record."

Clinton has responded to such arguments by rolling out a handful of endorsements from prominent gun control advocates — including former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton, and the Brady Campaign — to help her make the case against Sanders, betting that Democratic primary voters will see them as validation of her criticisms of his voting record.

On the debate stage, said Gross, that means "contrasting clearly. Bernie Sanders' response that [his 2005 vote to limit gun manufacturer liability] was complicated? We actually think it's not complicated. What we think needs to be done is to very clearly and plainly demonstrate the extent to which Bernie Sanders has sided with, and pandered to, the corporate gun lobby. And Hillary Clinton, instead, has sided with the safety of the American people."

