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Surprise! Hillary Clinton Is Farther Left Than Senator Bernie Sanders

One of the benefits of the already tiring 2016 presidential election season is watching prospective nominees stake out positions that are getting more extreme with each passing day. On the Democratic side, it has been interesting observing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pull Hillary Rodham Clinton farther to the left. Really, there is little to Bernie Sanders’ positions to oppose for liberals and progressives, but on Sunday he revealed that there is one area that he is to the right of the former Secretary of State and Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton.

It is indisputable that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is obviously not any kind of conservative, or a Republican, but on Sunday he parroted something right out of the NRA fanatic wing of the Republican ranks. In fact, if someone had never heard Senator Sanders speak, or follow his decidedly left-leaning votes in the Senate, they might think he memorized a wildly popular NRA statement, verbatim, to respond to calls for sane gun laws following a mass shooting making the headlines a couple times every year. On a CNN Sunday political program, host Jake Tapper asked the Vermont Senator about his support and vote for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The PLCAA is the law that protects gun and ammunition sellers from liability when they sell weapons that are used to kill human beings.

Senator Sanders explained his support for the retail gun industry thus; “If somebody has a gun and it falls into the hands of a murderer and the murderer kills somebody with a gun, do you hold the gun manufacturer responsible? Not any more than you would hold a hammer company responsible if somebody beats somebody over the head with a hammer. That is not what a lawsuit should be about.”

Now, the idea of a hammer as a deadly mass murder weapon on par with a gun argument is a favorite of the NRA, 2nd Amendment crowd; frankly it was surprising to hear it coming from Senator Sanders. It is also an intellectually dishonest analogy. There have been no mass murders with a hammer like those at Sandy Hook, Aurora, Columbine, West Virginia Tech, or Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church ever. It is a pathetic argument to even pretend that a hammer is like a gun, and Senator Sanders is certainly better than the NRA gun fanatic crowd.

The Senator and Democratic presidential candidate said there is a major “difference between Vermont, a rural state with little gun control where hunting is a way of life, and cities like Chicago, where guns are used by gangs.” Citing Vermont where hunting is a way of life is fine, but Colorado, a state where hunting is also a way of life, like Connecticut, West Virginia, and South Carolina are not like Chicago either, but those states have witnessed mass shootings by gun fanatics who should never have been sold massive amounts of ammunition, or guns for that matter. If nothing else, the idea of a gun seller being held to some account for selling weapons and ammunition to ‘unstable’ maniacs would serve as an incentive for them to support and perform even a cursory check on perspective purchasers; gang members, no matter what city they reside, are not frequenting the local gun retailer or online sellers.

Sanders said, “Folks who do not like guns is (sic) fine. But we have millions of people who are gun owners in this country — 99.9% of those people obey the law. I want to see real, serious debate and action on guns, but it is not going to take place if we simply have extreme positions on both sides. I think I can bring us to the middle.” Here is the rub, though, with Senator Sanders’ argument to support his vote for the PLCAA. Several states did have laws in place to hold irresponsible gun sellers accountable for selling weapons and ammunition to maniacs who should not have them. However, those states’ laws were eliminated with the passage of the federal PLCAA that Sanders voted in support of. For the record, then-Senator Hillary Clinton, like many Democrats, voted against the PLCAA.

by Anonymousreply 18September 16, 2020 1:22 AM

(cont.)

Senator Sanders claims, and there is no reason to dispute his assertion, that 99% of American gun owners are responsible, obey the law, and certainly will not go into a Colorado high school, a Connecticut elementary school, a West Virginia college dorm, a historic African American church or a crowded Colorado theatre and fire several magazines worth of bullets into human beings, but they are not the people laws like the PLCAA are protecting. The PLCAA is designed, by the NRA, to protect retail gun sellers like online gun retailer Lucky Gunner that sold 4,300 rounds of ammunition without any screening to the gun maniac James Holmes who killed 12 human beings and injured 70 more in an Aurora theatre.

One family did attempt to sue Lucky Gunner for negligence for “entrusting a mentally ill” James Holmes with thousands of bullets, online no less, without performing so much as a cursory background check. The family’s lawsuit never made it to a jury because Congress passed the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” and the law performed exactly as the NRA designed it to protect a gun and ammunition seller from bearing any responsibility for selling thousands of rounds of ammunition to a mentally ill gun fanatic.

To Bernie Sanders’ credit, sort of, he did say that he “wants to bring us to the middle on guns.” But really, he also said that “it is not going to take place if we simply have extreme positions on both sides.” Apparently, Senator Sanders means the NRA’s extreme position of putting several guns in the hands of every man, woman, and child in America, as opposed to the other side’s extreme position calling for sane gun safety laws like universal background checks for gun purchases, or holding retailers selling maniacs guns and ammunition liable for their lust for profit at innocent American lives’ expense.

Maybe that is the position a senator representing “a rural state with little gun control where hunting is a way of life” has to take to stay in office. However, it is highly unlikely that most residents in Vermont, whether they hunt as a way of life or not, would ever equate a hammer with a firearm unless they have been bombarded with propaganda from the National Rifle Association. Times have certainly changed in America because the NRA and gun fanatics were, at one time, the only people claiming hammers are as deadly and dangerous to human life as firearms.

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by Anonymousreply 1July 7, 2015 9:16 PM

Good for Bernie!

You anti gun idiots need to give it up.

by Anonymousreply 2July 7, 2015 9:21 PM

Wait! What about the millions of gay shriekers telling us "They're all alike!" AAIIYYYYEEE!!

by Anonymousreply 3July 7, 2015 9:24 PM

Thanks for your concern, OP.

by Anonymousreply 4July 7, 2015 9:26 PM

I thought Hil was to the left of Obama sometimes, with heath care for example. I remember her trying to explain to him that in negotiations you have to start high (single payer) and then compromise down from there. Obama, with his phenomenally high ratings and tons of political capital when he started office, began negotiations with an already watered-down proposal that got whittled down even further. I'm thrilled that Hillary has surprised many by being more liberal than thought. I hold out (an admittedly naive) hope that she'll be a Trojan Horse, who mostly only poses as a centrist, but a stanch liberal will emerge in office. I held out that hope for Obama too, but thought he turned out to be mostly the opposite sort of Trojan Horse.

by Anonymousreply 5July 7, 2015 9:53 PM

Boring. Sanders position on gun control doesn't matter. When I see HRC issue a progressive policy statement on the redistribution of wealth in the US - then I might be interested.

R5 - you're just wrong about HRC and healthcare. She and Obama had basically the same plan.

by Anonymousreply 6July 7, 2015 10:09 PM

r6, and you're just wrong if you're saying she didn't say that to him in a debate, I remember it distinctly. I know we're supposed to love Obama more, but tough shit, I don't.

by Anonymousreply 7July 7, 2015 10:10 PM

R7 - really? Did she say that before after she laid out plan that was the same as Obama's? Did she say that before or after she submitted her own plan in her husbands administration that wasn't single payer?

If you are right - it was a real gift to the Republicans. Basically telling everyone she would submit a plan she didn't support.

by Anonymousreply 8July 7, 2015 10:15 PM

"Did she say that before or after she submitted her own plan in her husbands administration that wasn't single payer? "

Obviously after, since I was clearly referring to the 2008 debates. It was how she intended to handle the issue in office, the proposal made in her husband's administration is irrelevant.

by Anonymousreply 9July 7, 2015 10:22 PM

Junk food kills more people than guns.

by Anonymousreply 10July 7, 2015 10:25 PM

I'll take either one. Just kick that fucking asshole Jeb Bush in the cunt.

by Anonymousreply 11July 7, 2015 10:33 PM

Well at least Sanders is younger.

by Anonymousreply 12July 7, 2015 10:53 PM

R9 - OK. What about the plan she put forward in 2008 that wasn't' single payer? Comment before or after that?

by Anonymousreply 13July 7, 2015 11:31 PM

OP, are you a paid or un-paid intern with the Hillary campaign?

by Anonymousreply 14July 7, 2015 11:58 PM

Useful idiots don't need to be paid.

They fellate Bush, or Clinton, or their preferred dictator du jour for free!

by Anonymousreply 15July 8, 2015 12:53 AM

Bernie Sanders voted to deregulate credit default swaps, the actual cause of the 2008 toxic derivatives meltdown.

by Anonymousreply 16January 26, 2016 4:57 PM

Who knew? All this time when Bill did welfare reform and declared big government to be over, Hillary was a secret socialist!

by Anonymousreply 17September 16, 2020 1:19 AM

2015 twat @R17 loves old Hillary threads.

by Anonymousreply 18September 16, 2020 1:22 AM
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