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.

Hillary Clinton scotching attack on National Rifle Association (N.R.A.), Gets a Quick Reponse

Hillary Clinton scotching attack on National Rifle Association (N.R.A.), Gets a Quick Reponse

Hillary Rodham Clinton has promised to take on the National Rifle Association in aggressively pressing for gun control measures that have eluded the Obama administration. On Friday, the powerful lobbying group gave her a fight.

It accused Mrs. Clinton of supporting “gun confiscation,” after she expressed interest in a gun buyback program that led to the elimination of the majority of Australia’s firearms.

At a town hall-style event Friday in Keene, N.H., Mrs. Clinton was asked if she would consider the voluntary program, set up after a mass shooting, under which the Australian government bought back roughly 650,000 guns and then imposed stricter standards for gun purchases.

“I think it would be worth considering doing it on the national level if that could be arranged,” Mrs. Clinton said. She compared the buyback, versions of which some communities in the United States already have adopted, to President Obama’s Car Allowance Rebate System (better known as “cash for clunkers”), which offered incentives for people to buy new cars and get energy-inefficient vehicles off the road.

“I do not know enough details to tell you how we would do it, or how it would work,” Mrs. Clinton said. “But certainly your example is worth looking at.”

In a statement, Chris Cox, the N.R.A.’s chief lobbyist, said that Mrs. Clinton’s comments validated the fears of gun owners and that her “extreme views are completely out of touch with the American people.”

“The real goal of gun control supporters is gun confiscation,” Mr. Cox said. “Hillary Clinton, echoing President Obama’s recent remarks on the same issue, made that very clear.”

The N.R.A.’s response could benefit Mrs. Clinton as she seeks to emphasize her stance on gun control and highlight her differences on the issue with Senator Bernie Sanders, who voted against several gun control measures in Congress.

At a campaign rally in San Antonio on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton, without mentioning Mr. Sanders by name, alluded to his comments during Tuesday night’s Democratic debate that “all the shouting in the world” would not keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them “and end this horrible violence.”

“I’ve been told by some, quit talking about this, to quit shouting about this,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I will tell you right now, I will not be silenced and we will not be silenced — we must continue to speak out.”

On Friday, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign released an online video that opens with footage of Mr. Obama’s news conference after the mass shooting at a community college in Oregon earlier this month. “This is something we should politicize,” Mr. Obama said.

The 60-second video then cuts to Mrs. Clinton. “I will not be silenced,” she says. “I will keep taking on the N.R.A.”

Mrs. Clinton’s gun control proposals, presented in detail days after the shooting in Oregon, included the use of executive action to close the so-called gun show loophole, should Congress fail to approve the measure.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Mrs. Clinton was asked about her newly assertive position, given that she had played up her gun rights credentials during her 2008 campaign.

Courtesy : Amy Chozick , New York Times