In a sense, this author is an odd choice to write an article about Bernie Sanders and the National Rifle Association. While finding the NRA itself a reactionary grotesquerie worthy only of scorn and contempt, I'm not in any way a supporter of gun-control legislation. My views are radical in general and, in this matter, don't really lend themselves well to the kind of discussions of gun rights vs. gun control one usually finds within the context of the liberal democracy. At the same time though, a recurring--indeed, routine--theme of my writings on public affairs in the last few years has been correcting misinformation about Sanders, so perhaps I'm not so odd a choice for this after all. What I’m going to do here is mostly just whip into article-shape a cache of notes I’ve compiled from researching the subject over the years.
The facts tell a very different story.
SANDERS' RECORD
Sanders has, over the years, voted against a handful of gun-control measures. Decades ago, for example, he voted against the Brady Bill, arguing that its waiting-period for handgun purchases was, more properly speaking, a matter to be handled by states and localities.[1] That's one of the two examples most frequently cited by Sanders' detractors, who inevitably point out that Sanders voted against the bill "five times," as if opposition to a single bill at different stages of its development can be turned into opposition to five. There is, of course, a good reason for this; anyone trying to present Sanders as anti-gun-control has almost nothing in his record with which to work. The other example always cited is the one Clinton demagogued so badly, Sanders' 2005 vote for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (the PLCAA), the law that shielded gun manufacturers and dealers from liability lawsuits. Sanders explained:
“Now, the issues that you’re talking about is, if somebody has a gun and it falls into the hands of a murderer, and that murderer kills somebody with the gun, do you hold the gun manufacturer responsible? Not anymore than you would hold a hammer company responsible if somebody beat somebody over the head with a hammer. That is not what a lawsuit should be about."While his louder critics have presented this vote as some kind of unconscionable thing, all the law actually did was reaffirm a well-established legal principle. As Adam Winkler of the UCLA School of Law told Vox, even before passage of the PLCAA, suits against gun manufacturers and dealers inevitably failed, since "the law generally doesn't hold people liable for other people's criminal behaviors." Vox notes that "none of the lawsuits leading up to the PLCAA's passage actually succeeded. Time and time again, courts dismissed the challenges, or juries rejected them... [L]itigation against gun makers and sellers consistently failed in court. In the book Suing the Gun Industry, Wendy Wagner of Texas Law wrote that 'gun litigation has been an utter failure'..."
Starting in 2015, Sanders has expressed his willingness to revisit the question of liability:
"If you were a gun shop owner in Vermont, and you sell somebody a gun, and that person flips out and then kills somebody, I don't think it's really fair to hold the [gun shop owner] responsible... On the other hand, where there is a problem is there is evidence that gun manufacturers do know that they're selling a whole lot of guns in an area that really should not be buying that many guns--that many of those guns are going to other areas, probably for criminal purposes. So can we take another look at that liability issue? Yes."Sanders threw his support behind an effort to amend the law.
"He proposed an amendment that would protect small, 'non-negligent,' 'mom and pop' gun shops. 'I do want to make sure that this legislation does not negatively impact small gun stores in rural America that serve the hunting community,' said Sanders, who represents Vermont in the Senate."Sanders' detractors use these few examples to make all kinds of extravagant claims--Paul Heintz, writing in Alternet in 2019, ludicrously asserted that "during his first two decades in Congress, Sanders supported much of the NRA’s legislative agenda"--but Sanders' actual record is very different. Beyond a handful of exceptions (that are cited into infinity), Sanders has always supported tougher gun-control measures. He has, with the kind of consistency that has endeared him to many of his supporters, backed a ban on "assault weapons" from his first unsuccessful campaign for the House in 1988. In what would be the first of many efforts, he supported the 1994 ban. He opposed the 1996 effort to repeal it. The PLCAA itself expanded a ban on armor-piercing ammunition and provided for child safety locks on guns. In 1993, Sanders voted against a measure that would have eliminated state-based waiting-periods for gun purchases. Sanders cosponsored legislation to ban the distribution of files enabling 3D printers to create guns. He has sponsored legislation to block domestic abusers from acquiring firearms. He cosponsored legislation to block suspected terrorists from being able to buy a gun and, in an earlier bill, from being issued a license to own a gun or explosives. In 2009 and 2013, he opposed an effort to make concealed carry permits binding across state lines. He co-sponsored the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, which supported local "red flag" laws that denied firearms to those deemed a danger to themselves or others. In 2013, he supported legislation that required background checks for gun sales between unlicensed sellers at gun shows and on the internet. That same year, he voted for several amendments to expand background checks through Harry Reid's Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act. In 1998, he supported legislation to increase criminal penalties for crimes committed with guns.
The pro-Sanders site FeeltheBern.org offers a rundown of Sanders views and record on gun policy:
The few times Sanders opposed gun-control measures are disingenuously cited--and cited and cited and cited--by his Clintonite critics as representative of his history on gun policy, but this is Sanders' actual record."Bernie has voted in favor of a nationwide ban on military-style assault weapons, a nationwide ban on high-capacity magazines of over ten rounds, and nationwide expanded background checks that address unsafe loopholes..."When a standard gunstock is replaced with a bump stock, a semiautomatic firearm can fire more quickly. The Route 91 Harvest Music Festival shooter used a bump stock. This tragic mass shooting resulted in fifty-eight deaths and hundreds of injuries."Bernie supported the ban on bump stocks, noting that they 'provide an effective workaround to convert a legal weapon into an illegal one.' ... Federal law currently stipulates that only licensed firearms dealers are required to conduct background checks. Bernie supports closing the gun show loophole, which allows private sellers to sell firearms to private buyers without background checks... Bernie has voted in favor of expanded background checks for all commercial sales with an exemption for sales between 'family, friends, and neighbors.' Bernie has also voted in favor of a national instant background check system..."Given that 23 percent of the perpetrators of mass shootings have been found to suffer from mental health issues, Bernie believes that expanding access to mental healthcare can address some of the root causes of gun-related violent crime... One of the ACA provisions he successfully got added dramatically increased support for community health centers, which provide affordable primary care and mental health counseling to the underserved. The law authorized $11 billion to improve and expand community health centers over a five-year period. Mental healthcare is as important, if not more important, than physical healthcare in order to save the lives of others and not just the lives of the individuals with mental health issues... Bernie’s Medicare For All plan includes mental health services."
SANDERS "IN THE POCKET" OF THE NRA?
In 2017, a MarketWatch story, citing the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets, asserted that Sanders had, in that cycle, gotten over $11,000 from the gun-rights lobby. The article has been shared all over the internet for years now. When this article is published and circulated, I expect that story will be cited everywhere it goes to counter it. Zipping over to OpenSecrets, though, one finds a very different story. Here's the list of federal pols who received NRA money in 2016. It's 3 pages long and Sanders isn't on it. Here's the site's list of all senators who received money from all gun-rights orgs in the 2016 cycle. It's a relatively long list for one page but, again, Sanders hasn't gotten a penny. As the Las Vegas Sun reported in 2018, Sanders has never gotten any money from the NRA.
Looking at it even more broadly, Sanders has, in fact, never gotten any money from any gun-rights group. Here's OpenSecrets' list of donations to current senators over their entire careers. Again, Sanders ain't on it.
The NRA issues legislative ratings on congressmen up for reelection--just like in school, "A" ratings for those who support the org's legislative agenda, "F" ratings for those who don't. When skimming through Twitter or Facebook, it's routine to see Clintonites claim Sanders has an "A" rating. Here are his actual NRA ratings[2] for the whole of his tenure in the federal government:
The NRA isn't a fan of Bernie Sanders.[3]
BERNIE SANDERS & THE NRA: A BRIEF POLITICAL HISTORY
In 1988, Sanders made his first run for the U.S. House of Representatives and came out in support of a ban on "assault-weapons." It was a three-way race, Sanders running as an independent taking on Democrat Paul Poirier and Republican Peter Smith. The NRA endorsed Smith but both Smith and Poirier signed the NRA's pledge not to support further gun-control legislation. Sanders refused. In 2016, the Washington Post recorded what happened next:
Sanders went on to lose the race by a slim 3.5% of the vote. Over the years, Sanders has often expressed the opinion that he may have lost that race because of his support for gun-control measures. There's probably no way to ever know though."John McClaughry, founder of public policy think tank Ethan Allen Institute in Vermont who was an NRA member at the time, recalled the NRA sending postcards and setting up a phone bank urging voters to support Smith. McClaughry said NRA 'went all out at Peter Smith’s urging the last week of the campaign,' tipping the votes to Smith’s favor."'Bernie was clearly the outsider from the NRA and the hunting clubs' [perspective],' Poirier, now a Sanders supporter, told The Fact Checker. 'They said, "Don’t vote for him. Paul Smith is our candidate. Paul Poirier is acceptable." ... [Sanders] did have the NRA, through the different associations in Vermont, actively working to make sure that nobody voted for him. That's an accurate statement [by Sanders]. I don’t know why people are questioning that."
While in congress, Smith flip-flopped and came out in support of an "assault weapons" ban, which infuriated the NRA. In 1990, the org set out to unseat him. Sanders was again running for the seat and again supporting an "assault weapons" ban. The NRA didn't endorse him but it did firmly endorse removing Smith, which may have benefited Sanders to some extent. In 2015, Judy Shailor, who was Smith's 1990 campaign manager, recalled:
"'The gun groups would say to me, "We are going to put him in office for one term and teach Peter Smith a lesson. Then we’re going to vote [Sanders] out,"' Shailor said. 'I said, "You won’t get him out.". . . He's one of the best master politicians I’ve ever come across.'"The NRA distributed a mailer to its 12,000 members in Vermont, saying Sanders was a more "honorable" choice than Smith, by way of saying Smith lacked honor:
"'We don’t like everything that Mr. Sanders has to say about firearms,' NRA lobbyist James Baker told the Rutland Herald in 1990. 'But he's been upfront about it.'"This is reinforced in a 1990 letter written by NRA lobbyist Mary Kaaren Jolly, explaining what the NRA did as strictly negative, a revenge move against Smith. "...the NRA did not endorse Bernie Sanders, he was viewed as the lesser of two evils. And yes, a vote for Sanders would be a clear protest vote against Peter Smith... Bernie Sanders was not our choice. We had hoped that a better democratic candidate would have been available. Yet, all the Vermont sportsmen's groups opposed Peter Smith and wanted the NRA to oppose him too." Smith "bragged, both in Vermont and in the District of Columbia, that he was using his reelection campaign to teach the NRA a lesson." He "told you and he told us he would protect and defend our gun rights. But the instant he had a chance, he voted against our gun rights. On the other hand, Bernie Sanders was upfront with us."[4]
On election day, Sanders destroyed Smith in a 17-point blowout.
Sanders' Clintonite detractors often mischaracterize this race rather badly to craft a phantom of a Sanders/NRA tag-team but the NRA's point, made very plain at the time, was to punish Smith for his heresy, not to support Sanders. If this helped Sanders, it's only because he was incidentally Smith's major opponent. The occasional wild claim to the contrary notwithstanding, the effects of the NRA's actions on the race, if it had any real impact, appear to have been negligible. Sanders picked up almost exactly the same percentage of the vote--56%--that he and the Democrat Poirier had split in 1988--56.4% (the official Democratic candidate in 1990, Delores Sandoval, was a non-factor, drawing barely 3%). Sanders would go on to repeat that percentage in his 1992 reelection campaign (57.78%), in which the NRA backed his opponent. It would, in any event, be absurd to make a fuss about the fact that the NRA came out against a sitting Republican, thus maybe helping elect the fellow who became the most progressive politician in congress.
Initially, I could find no record of the NRA supporting Tim Philbin, Sanders' Republican opponent in 1992 but I've since found a tweet from last year from a Twitter user named Davis Tom that reproduced a scan of an article by Jack Hoffman from the 28 August, 1994 edition of the Rutland Daily Herald. Hoffman writes, "In 1992, [the NRA] supported Sanders Republican opponent Timothy Philbin."[5] In 1994, the NRA endorsed Republican John Carroll in his efforts to take down Sanders:
"Sanders, a socialist seeking a third term, faces his toughest reelection challenge yet from Republican John Carroll, a businessman and majority leader of the state Senate... Besides what he calls a 'very strong' opponent, Sanders has to fight off opposition from the National Rifle Association and sporting groups, which have targeted him because he voted for an assault weapons ban earlier this year. Four years ago, the NRA helped the former Burlington mayor unseat Rep. Peter Smith, a moderate Republican who voted for a similar ban. This year, the NRA's bumper stickers read 'Bye, Bye Bernie,' instead of 'Dump Peter Smith.'"In his 1997 memoir "Outsider in the House," Sanders himself recounted:
"During the 1994 campaign the National Rifle Association (NRA) had played a very forceful role against me. They distributed widely a 'Bye, Bye, Bernie' bumper sticker, held press conferences and public meetings, placed radio ads, made phone calls--and it was effective. There is no question that we lost many working-class men in that election because we handled the gun issue badly."In 1996, Susan Sweetser was the NRA's choice, and the slogan was "Get B.S. Out Of Washington."[6] In 1998, it was Republican Mark Candon.
I could find no record of the NRA officially endorsing Sanders' 2000 opponent Karen Kerin--a longtime member of Gun Owners of Vermont--but it gave her an "A" rating and Sanders an "F." Ditto for Bill Meub in 2002, Greg Parke in 2004 and, when Sanders first ran for the Senate in 2008, Richard Tarrant.
In 2012, the NRA (and Gun Owners of America) endorsed Republican John MacGovern in his ultimately unsuccessful effort to unseat Sanders.
I could find no record of the NRA endorsing Sanders' 2018 opponent Lawrence Zupan.
The notion of Bernie Sanders as a servile toady of the gun-rights lobby is rather violently at odds with the facts. The reality is that Sanders has always been a supporter of tougher gun control measures (though not all proposed measures of that genre), has never been endorsed by the NRA, has never gotten a penny from the NRA or any other gun-rights group and, in fact, the NRA and other gun-rights groups have, throughout his time in congress, repeatedly tried to unseat Sanders. The leadership of the NRA has never shared the confusion of Sanders' Clintonite detractors on where he stands on these issues or where they stand on him.
--j.
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[1] Gun control is always best understood as a city/country dispute, not, as some try to understand it, a liberal/conservative one, and Sanders has always stressed that rural areas, where people grow up with guns, have a different culture than urbanized ones.
[2] The 1992-2012 ratings are as recorded by from Politifact, the 2018 rating courtesy of the Trace.
[3] At the other end of the spectrum, Sanders has enjoyed a 100% rating from the pro-gun control Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence since at least 2013. If older ratings from the org exist, I've been unable to find them, which is why I'm putting this in a footnote instead of in the article proper.
[4] The letter:
[5] From the Rutland Herald, 28 Aug., 1994:
[6] That 1996 campaign, around which Sanders wrote "Outsider in the House," saw a major push by the Republicans and right-wing interest-groups to remove Sanders. In the book, Sanders recalls:
"Newt Gingrich and the House Republican leadership had 'targeted' this election, and spent a huge sum of money trying to defeat me. Some of the most powerful Republicans in the country came to Vermont to campaign for Sweetser, including Majority Leader Dick Armey, Republican national chairman Haley Barbour, presidential candidate Steve Forbes, House Budget chairman John Kasich, and Republican convention keynote speaker Susan Molinari. As chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, a democratic socialist, and a leading opponent of their 'Contract with America,' I've been a thorn in their side for some time. They wanted me out—badly.Update (Fri., 21 Feb., 2020) - The original version of this article had no information about the NRA's endorsement of Sanders 1992 opponent Tim Philbin. As that information has become available; the article has been updated to include it.]
"My campaign was also targeted by corporate America. A group of major corporations organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses put me at the top of their 'hit list' and poured tens of thousands of dollars into the state to sponsor negative and dishonest TV ads, as well as a statewide mailing. By the end of the campaign Vermonters were watching four different TV ads attacking me.
"The wealthiest people in Vermont went deep into their pockets for my Republican opponent. They wrote out dozens of $1,000 checks (the legal maximum) and attended $500-a-plate functions. We also took on the National Rifle Association (NRA), the National Right to Work Organization, and other right-wing and big money organizations. Never before had the ruling class of Vermont and the nation paid quite so much attention to a congressional race in the small state of Vermont—a state with just one representative."
Excellent, well researched article
ReplyDeleteThanks!