All it took was Bernie to turn DU into a bunch of NRA apologists!

[DanTex]

44. Yes, but that means nothing.

The equivalent argument would be to point out that the Koch Brothers think that Hillary is a communist, so obviously she's on the side of working people.

You are right, Bernie is not an NRA extremist. But he did vote against the Brady Bill, which is why there are federally mandated background checks in the first place. He also did vote for immunity for gun manufacturers. And he has been quoted (indirectly) as thinking that gun control is "elitist", something that really stinks in uncomfortable ways.

Obviously, my OP was satirical in nature. At the same time, the fact that people jump to defend Bernie for these indefensible positions, while attacking Hillary for things as inconsequential as her emails, says something. I'm not saying that Hillary's IWR vote and some of her centrist positions aren't legitimate points of criticism. But I am saying that Bernie's gun control stances are also legitimate.

I have a particular issue with people who say gun control is somehow "not a big deal". It is (obviously) a big deal. In terms of American lives lost, almost nothing comes close to guns (all the wars of the last decade are a small fraction). And the argument that gun control is a "losing issue" or a lost cause, has appeared on DU, which has particular irony in this case, because the Sanders candidacy is also a lost cause.