Self-inflicted wound by Bern
Does Bernie Sanders owe the families of Sandy Hook an apology? Yes. And no. Was he wrong to say gun manufacturers should not be sued by victims and the families of people wounded or killed by their guns — even as a Connecticut judge says they can be? Yes. And no.
Just as politicians like to pretend that women only have one issue, abortion, and give us simplistic answers to a very complex issue, so it is with guns.
When Sanders was asked by the Daily News if he thought victims of gun violence should be able to sue the manufacturer, he was straightforward. “No, I don’t,” he replied.
Then Erica Smegielski, daughter of the murdered Newton elementary school principal tweeted “Shame on you, @BernieSanders try living one hour of our lives.” The Daily News headlined with “Bernie’s Sandy Hook Shame” and Hillary Clinton blasted Bernie at the debate and pushed it hard the next day.
The issue of guns — there was more than one mass shooting per day in the U.S. last year — is as explosive as an assault rifle firing on a grenade. Like abortion,
you either have to be for it or agin’ it. And pols make a lot of noise, not to mention bucks, by very loudly being for it or agin’ it.
What about being reasonable about it? Nah.
As criminal as I believe the sale of assault weapons to be, they are legal. Federal gun control has been impossible. An underage kid can’t buy liquor or cigarettes, but no federal law prohibits the possession by minors of long guns like semiautomatics, some of which fire 13.3 rounds per second.
Our legislators, pressured by NRA gun lobbyists, would rather have the blood of children on their jackets than defy the big money vote-getters. They don’t want to lose their fat gigs.
Would they work for drug dealers because they needed the job? Don’t answer that.
When the government doesn’t do the right thing, than legislators who must instinctively know how wrong it is to sell assault weapons should at least backdoor the right thing like they did with tobacco and alcohol.
Those substances weren’t banned, but by shooting the manufacturers in their bottom lines, those industries were forced into taking the moral high road, no matter how lowlife their previous policies had been. Money talks, everybody balks.
When liquor advertising was restricted, the industry took it upon themselves to be more responsible in how they sold and promoted their products.
If the tobacco companies had been smarter earlier, they may have headed off a lot of their legal woes and tremendous financial losses before they allegedly became more self-regulating.
Likewise, the gun industry should self-regulate — because the lawsuits are coming.
Does Bernie owe the Sandy Hook families an apology? Maybe not, because the guns in the hands of psychotic Adam Lanza were tragically legal. Should he have apologized for being so insensitive about it? Definitely. By refusing to do so, he shot himself in
the foot.