Hillary Attacks Bernie Sanders as the Supporter of Gun Makers and Sellers

Hillary Attacks Bernie Sanders as the Supporter of Gun Makers and Sellers

Mrs. Clinton said legislation that Bernie Sanders supported in 2005 forbids all lawsuits against gun makers and sellers. 

After President Obama said last week that he would not support any Democrat who does not favour new gun control measures, Mrs. Clinton has tried to call attention to Mr. Sanders’s vote in 2005 for a bill that shields gun manufacturers and dealers from liability lawsuits. Mr. Sanders was a House member at the time; Mrs. Clinton, then a senator from New York, voted against the bill.

On MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Friday, Mrs. Clinton claimed that the legislation said “no one can sue a gun maker or a gun seller,” and on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, she said it provided the gun industry with “absolute immunity from any kind of responsibility or liability.”

The bill, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, followed a flurry of lawsuits against the industry by municipalities. It shields gun manufacturers, sellers and their trade associations from liability lawsuits “resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse” of firearms and ammunition. 

When President George W. Bush signed the measure into law, the National Rifle Association called it “the most significant piece of pro-gun legislation in 20 years.”

On11 January 2016, Mrs. Clinton proposed raising the income tax by four percentage points for people earning more than $5 million a year, an idea virtually out of the Sanders playbook. At the same time, she is aggressively challenging Mr. Sanders on gun control and health care, undertaking relentless attacks on Mr. Sanders that can feel somewhat forced, like portraying him as an ally of the National Rifle Association.

On 12 June 2016, Mrs. Clinton even mocked Mr. Sanders at one point, imitating his defence for supporting a bill shielding gun manufacturers and dealers from liability. “He says, ‘Well, I’m from Vermont,’ ” Mrs. Clinton noted before saying that home-state concerns were not a sufficient explanation.

She is also trying to tap into the popularity of President Obama by embracing his record, and she is dispatching former President Bill Clinton here on Friday for the second time in two weeks — after insisting for months that she was not running for a third term for either man.