A day after a potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate defended the Confederate flag, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders sided with gun owners against criticism from urban Democrats, arguing that hunting and gun fun “is a lifestyle that should not be condemned.”
Splitting with fellow Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley, Sanders said on National Public Radio that urban candidates don’t understand the cultural value and importance of gun ownership, adding that they are “terribly mistaken” if they think gun control will end violence.
“I think guns and gun control is an issue that needs to be discussed,” he said 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.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders warns against quick judgement of gun owners. AP Photo
Following the Charleston, S.C. church slayings, O’Malley said “I’m pissed,” and called for tough gun control. Hillary Clinton also endorsed a lesser form and White House spokesman Josh Earnest blasted the ownership of “assault weapons.”
But Sanders, who represents a largely rural state, said gun control is not the answer to curbing violence.
“If anyone thinks that gun control itself is going to solve the problem of violence in this country, you’re terribly mistaken. So, obviously, we need strong, sensible gun control and I will support it. But some people think it’s going to solve all of our problems. It is not,” he said.
It was the second day where Democratic White House hopefuls split on controversial issues. On Wednesday, Virginia Democrat Jim Webb warned against a quick junking of the Confederate flag. He said it has a “complicated history” and shouldn’t be used to divide Americans.
And Sanders, in his NPR interview, used a similar argument: “I can understand that if some Democrats or Republicans represent an urban area where people don’t hunt, don’t do target practice; they’re not into guns. But, in my state, people go hunting and people do target practice. Talking about cultural divides in this country, you know, it is important for people in urban America to understand that families go out together and kids go out with their parents and they hunt and they enjoy the outdoors and that is a lifestyle that should not be condemned.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
