Sanders stands with the NRA: NRA lobbyist: 'Bernie's right' about lawsuits against gunmakers

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NRA lobbyist: 'Bernie's right' about lawsuits against gunmakers

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Bernie Sanders addresses supporters during a rally in National City, California. Photograph: Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images

Lois Beckett in Louisville, Kentucky
@loisbeckett

Sunday 22 May 2016 11.56 EDT
Last modified on Sunday 22 May 2016 12.17 EDT



A day after the National Rifle Association endorsed Donald Trump for president, the group’s chief lobbyist said “Bernie’s right” when it comes to lawsuits against gunmakers.



For months, Hillary Clinton has slammed her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders, for supporting a 2005 federal law that bars lawsuits against gun companies when their products are misused by criminals.

On Saturday, at the annual meeting of NRA members in Louisville, Kentucky, the NRA’s chief lobbyist played a clip of a response from the Vermont senator.

During a March debate in Michigan, Sanders said: “If you go to a gun store and you legally purchase a gun, and then, three days later, if you go out and start killing people, is the point of this lawsuit to hold the gun shop owner or the manufacturer of that gun liable?

“If they are selling a product to a person who buys it legally, what you’re really talking about is ending gun manufacturing in America. I don’t agree with that.”

A hall full of NRA members gave the clip a smattering of applause. To laughter, Chris Cox, head of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said: “I don’t say this often … OK, fine, I’ve never said it. But Bernie’s right.

“Holding gun manufacturers liable for the acts of madmen and terrorists will put them out of business overnight.”

...............................The Clinton campaign has highlighted the case, and she has won endorsement from some family members of victims from Sandy Hook victims and other mass shootings. ...............

[Fresh_Start]

1. How Bernie Sanders Helped Derail a Promising Legal Fight Against Gun Violence

In the fall of 2005, the city of New York was preparing a mammoth lawsuit against 14 gun manufacturers and 27 distributors and dealers. The suit set out to prove that the gun industry bore a responsibility for the volume of guns illegally trafficked into the city.

To make its case, the city had marshaled significant evidence showing that gun manufacturers were unwilling to take simple steps to keep their guns out of criminals' hands—and even knowingly fed the criminal gun market. The lawsuit highlighted federal data from 1996 to 1998 that had traced more than 34,000 guns used to perpetrate crimes back to just 137 dealers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms informed gun manufacturers every time a gun used in a crime was traced to their companies, information that would have made it easy for manufacturers to determine which of their distributors and dealers were supplying the black market, yet manufacturers continued to sell guns to those "bad apple" dealers.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/bernie-sanders-vote-gun-immunity-black-market

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2. This matters to us.