Bernie Sanders and guns

[LWolf]

For the record, I have never owned a gun. I've never wanted to. I DID once, back in the 1980s, shoot at some tin cans because some people I knew thought I would have fun. I didn't. What I did, at that time, was go back without them to clean up the mess they left out in the desert.

That said, I live rurally, and am surrounded by a culture that uses guns. Many of my students and their families fill their freezers for the winter by hunting. Their hunting trips are family traditions; they all go, even if only a few of them are doing the actual hunting. I spend a lot of time creating independent studies for hunters every fall. It's a different world, and a different take, from urban and suburban areas. Vermont is the most rural state in the U.S., and Sanders' position about guns reflects that constituency, as it should.

This is what he said recently:

In the wake of last week's Charleston, S.C., church shootings, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders explained his competing concerns between gun rights and gun safety.

"I think guns and gun control is an issue that needs to be discussed," Sanders told NPR's David Greene in an interview airing on Thursday's Morning Edition. "Let me add to that, I think that urban America has got to respect what rural America is about, where 99 percent of the people in my state who hunt are law abiding people."

In the wake of the shooting deaths of nine African-Americans at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, many Democratic politicians have renewed calls to tighten gun-control measures. Sanders said he's open to a conversation about what to do next on gun-control measures and would go along with stricter background checks, for example. But he noted in the interview that those measures alone wouldn't solve the problem of gun violence in America.

The article goes on to say,

For left-leaning senators from largely rural, pro-gun states — like Vermont — it can be tough to strike a balance talking about guns. Sanders has had a mixed voting record on guns. He voted to end the "gun-show loophole" and in favor of the 2013 universal background check bill and assault-weapons ban following Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre that left 20 children dead. But, previously, Sanders voted to allow guns on Amtrak and against the Brady bill.

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/24/417180805/bernie-sanders-walks-a-fine-line-on-gun-control

I agree that "it can be tough to strike a balance talking about guns." I believe that Sanders is correct in trying to strike that balance, and in supporting his rural constituents. I also see that this is one issue that many progressives will disagree with him on. I think that's okay; it's never happened, at least in my 55 years, that I've found a politician I agree with every single issue on. Sanders, frankly, comes as close as any and closer than almost all. That said, I disagree with his votes on the Brady Bill and to allow guns on Amtrak.

I do not believe that, as POTUS, he would stand in the way of stronger gun control legislation presented to him by Congress. He's just said, as quoted above, that he is open to the conversation.

[bigwillq]

1. I think Bernie's stance on guns and gun control is fine

now and then.

I do highly agree with your last paragraph.

[bigwillq]

2. Congrats on 41,000 posts!

[JI7]

3. his recent votes and positions are on the side supportive

Of gun control so that's the important part.

[LWolf]

4. Yes. nt

[Maedhros]

5. I think Bernie's stance on gun control is perfectly fine.

And he's absolutely correct when he says that gun violence is not only a result of accessibility - it's primarily a result of the culture of fear in America. As Michael Moore demonstrated in Bowling for Columbine, Canada has more firearms per capita than does the United States, but only a tiny fraction of the gun violence.

[LWolf]

6. This is true. nt

[jwirr]

7. My part of MN is like Vermont.

[Glassunion]

8. I never understood the what the big deal was on allowing firearms in checked baggage on trains.

It's basically the exact same policy that is in place today for commercial air travel.

[MJE]

9. Bernie is correct and Hillary is wrong on gun control

Further gun regulation will produce insignificant reduction in gun violence. Given constitutional constraints (federal and state) further regulation will not reduce gun violence.

Suggested solution
We need to focus on the root causes of gun violence, such as the war on drugs; untreated severe mental illnesses; toxic, polarized politics that express hate, self-righteousness and Authoritarianism; terrorist subcultures; gangs and a society that is too stressed and too self-ish. Guns have been with us for centuries, but the level of violence and fear that we see almost daily is a recent (40 year) phenomena. The leading factors of gun violence are:
● The War on Drugs.
● The wanton neglect of mental illness. This was started by the Reagan administration defunding of mental health services.
● Political polarization based on Authoritarianism, with its inherent positionality (I am right/you are wrong).
● Extraordinary individual and collective self-induced stresses and stressors, such as mass media agitation and political postures intended to increase their income (e.g. STAND BY! I'm Wolf Blitzer and you're in the SITUATION ROOM!) These and other factors, including hating subcultures (including family culture) combine to produce alienation and depravity of individuals, which results in violence. Mass media has caused much of the mental illness that resulted in gun violence, by constantly agitating fear, keeping people all wound up, on edge and fearful.
​
Here are some facts.
● Gun violence is at a forty year low in the United States.
● Gun violence is correlated with gasoline lead.
● The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment grants the right to bear arms to individuals. Many state constitutions are even more strongly worded in favor of the individual right to bear arms.

We need solutions to gun and related violence that actually work. This requires focus on the causes of gun violence, such as the war on drugs; untreated severe mental illnesses; toxic, polarized politics that express hate, self-righteousness and Authoritarianism; terrorist subcultures; gangs and a society that is too stressed and too self-ish.