Hillary Clinton on guns in What Happened - Hitting Sanders hard on his pro NRA voting

[factfinder_77]

Page 185-186
Guns became a flash point in both the primaries and the general election. Bernie Sanders, who loved to talk about how "true progressives" never bow to political realities or powerful interests, had long bowed to the political reality of his rural state of Vermont and supported the NRA's key priorities, including voting against the Brady Bill five times in the 1990s. In 2005, he voted for that special immunity law that protects gun makers and sellers from being sued when their weapons are used in deadly attacks. The NRA said the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was the most important gun-related legislation in more than twenty years. Then-Senator Barack Obama and I had voted against it. I couldn't believe Bernie continued to support the law ten years later when he ran for President.
I hammered him on the issue every chance I got. We had a revealing exchange in a town hall debate in March 2016. A man stepped up to the microphone to ask a question. His fourteen-year-old daughter had been shot in the head during a shooting spree outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant. After a few scary days on life support, she pulled through and ended up being the lone survivor of the attack. The father asked what we were going to do to address the epidemic of gun violence stalking our country.
"I am looking at your daughter, and I'm very grateful that she is laughing and she is on the road to recovery," I said. "But it never should have happened." I told him about some of the steps I wanted to take to keep families safe, including repealing the immunity protection for gun manufacturers. The moderator then asked Bernie his thoughts about a new lawsuit challenging that corporate immunity. To my surprised, the Senator doubled down. He argued passionately that people like me who talked about suing gun makers were really talking about "ending gun manufacturing in America." To him, the idea that a manufacturer could be held liable for what happens with its gun was tantamount to saying that "there should not be any guns in America." I couldn't have disagreed more strongly. No other industry in our country has the kind of protection he supported for gun manufacturers. And in every other situation, he was the loudest voice in the room calling for corporations to be held accountable for their actions. Why was this one issue so different? As I told the crowd, it was like he was reading straight from the NRA's talking points. After months of pressure from activists and victims' families, Bernie finally said he would reconsider his vote.

Page 180
The politics of guns have been toxic for a long time. Despite the fact that, according to a June 2017 Quinnipiac University poll, 94 percent of Americans support comprehensive background checks for gun sales, including 92 percent of gun owners, many politicians have shied away from taking on the NRA. The vocal minority of voters against gun safety laws have historically been more organized, better funded, and more willing to be single-issue voters.
In the 1990s, my husband fought hard to pass both a ten-year ban on assault weapons and the Brady Bill, which, for the first time, required background checks on many gun purchases at federally licensed firearms dealers. In the years since, that law has blocked more than two million purchases by convicted felons, domestic abusers, and fugitives. The NRA funded an intense backlash to the new safety measures and helped defeat a lot of Democratic members of Congress in the disastrous 1994 midterm elections. Then, in 2000, the NRA helped beat Al Gore.

Page 182
Wayne LaPierre helped make the NRA one of the most reactionary and dangerous organizations in America. Instead of being concerned with the interests of everyday gun owners, many of who support commonsense safety protections, the NRA has essentially become a wholly owned subsidiary of the powerful corporations that make and sell guns. Their bottom line and twisted ideology are all that matters to them, even if it costs thousands of American lives every year.

Page 183
After the massacre of nine parishioners at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015, my team focused on why the twenty-one-year-old white supremacist killer was able to buy a gun despite having an arrest record that should have been flagged by the required background check. We found that, under the current law, if a background check is not completed after three days, a store is free to sell a gun with no questions asked. This is the result of an amendment the NRA designed and pushed through Congress during the debate over the Brady Bill in 1993. Experts say that more than fifty-five thousand gun sales that should have been blocked have been allowed to proceed because of what we started calling the "Charleston loophole." I made closing it and other gun loopholes a major part of my campaign.

Page 188-189
All told, the gun lobby spent more than $30 million supporting Trump, more money than any other outside group and more than double what it spent to support Mitt Romney in 2012. About two-thirds of that money paid for more than ten thousands negative ads attacking me in battleground states. The organization didn't have the guts to take on my specific policy proposals - which were widely popular, even with a lot of gun owners. Instead, it went for fear mongering and demonizing. In one ad, a woman is alone in bed when a robber breaks into the house. "Don't let Hillary leave you protected with nothing but a phone," the narrator warns, suggesting falsely that I would have stopped law-abiding Americans from having guns.

I'm sure that some of my fellow Democrats will look at this high-priced onslaught and conclude, as many have in the past, that standing up to the NRA just isn't worth it. Some may put gun safety on the chopping block alongside reproductive rights as "negotiable," so as not to distract from populist economics. Who knows - the same might happen to criminal justice reform and racial justice more broadly. That would be a terrible mistake. Democrats should not respond to my defeat by retreating from our strong commitments on these life-or-death issues. The vast majority of Americans agree that we need to do more on gun safety. This is a debate we can win if we keep at it.

[shanny]

1. BernieBernieBernieberniebernie

berniebernieberniebernieberniebermiebernie and also too, Bernie!







Seriously, give it a rest.

[Snackshack]

3. It never ends..

It's all Bernies fault that Hillary did not win...

[shanny]

4. Sad, isn't it? Nt

[Snackshack]

14. Pathological

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I'd like to read his thoughts on the primary.

[shanny]

15. I would too

But I doubt if he would write that down for public consumption.

[TubbersUK]

5. What are you hoping to achieve ?

[factfinder_77]

7. No problem when books, commentators, and speeches expressed their views on Hillary's "missteps",

We hear, Hillary should stfu, Hillary supporters should stfu, well that ain't going to happen.

but by god, if the "little women", (sarcasm), dares to present her perspective, "heaven forbid"

This is the prefect example of the double standard bullshit that has and is occurring

[TubbersUK]

9. My question wasn't rhetorical n/t

[TheBlackAdder]

18. Copyright infringement or a TOS violation for exceeding three paragraphs?

[aikoaiko]

8. HRC was and is wrong on PLCAA.

Thanks for reminding me of one of the reasons Bernie was my preferred candidate.

Bernie, much to my chagrin, supported the AWB and most other gun control laws, but he was right to support PLCAA.

It helps protect the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

It was a misstep to hit Bernie hard in the primary on his progun vote (really pro-Liberty vote) because it reminded moderates in the GE that she wants to reduce access to firearms to non-prohibited US residents.

[Brogrizzly]

10. Ffs, enough with the Hillary vs Bernie already.

[raven mad]

11. Off to the greatest.

[thesquanderer]

12. Flawed premise.

Bernie Sanders, who loved to talk about how "true progressives" never bow to political realities

I never heard him say any such thing.

To the contrary, for example, he did vote for the Affordable Care Act, even though it was far from the health plan he wanted it to be. (He also worked to get some provisions inserted that made it better than it would have been.)

He pushes hard for his values, but in the end, he knows one must sometimes bow to political realities, and I've never heard him say otherwise.

[delisen]

13. Clinton has been consistently strong against Putin

and against the manipulations of the NRA.

[X_Digger]

16. *yawn* Thanks for reminding me how inane her positions were re the 2nd.

It'd be fucking stupid to sue Ford because a drunk drove a mustang when he killed someone.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. JFC! When is this shit going to stop?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

19. ...

[ChubbyStar]

22. Thank you for cracking me up this morning!

Love the graphic. CLASSIC!

[CherokeeFiddle]

20. This is re-fighting the primaries defined

[kcr]

21. Same responses to the gun issue as always. Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a thing to witness.

That's why it's never bad to point this out. Sanders isn't immune to criticism. Kick

[Jim Lane]

23. I'm glad she's accepting the legitimacy of issue debate in a primary

She disagreed with Bernie about firearms policy. Accordingly, she writes, "I hammered him on the issue every chance I got."

Bernie, for his part, disagreed with her about the minimum wage and regulating Wall Street, and hammered her on those issues every chance he got.

I haven't read her book. The impression I've formed is that her hammering Bernie on an issue constitutes thoughtful debate on public policy, entirely appropriate in a contested primary, but Bernie hammering her on an issue constitutes paving the way for Donald Trump.

Perhaps someone who has read the book can address this distinction?