WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday attempted to defend his controversial vote to protect gun producers and sellers from legal liability if a gun is used in a crime, but proposed a revision to the law that already exists.
His opponent Hillary Clinton has increasingly used Sanders' mixed record on gun control legislation to contrast the two, particularly his vote in 2005 to give manufacturers immunity to lawsuits if a gun is used for criminal purposes, including mass shootings.
Pressed on the issue at a Democratic candidates forum on Monday, Sanders said that he does not think his vote was a mistake, but would consider revising the law to prosecute large gun manufacturers who may know that their guns "are being distributed to criminal elements."
"If you are a gun manufacturer who is selling guns into an area and you’re selling a whole lot of guns, and you have reason to believe that a lot of those guns are not meant for people in that area, but are being distributed to criminal elements, should you be prosecuted? Damn right," he told Fusion's Jorge Ramos.
However, that measure already exists. According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the law that Sanders supported contains six conditions in which gun manufacturers would not be shielded from lawsuits. One of these includes "an action brought against someone convicted of 'knowingly transfer[ing] a firearm, knowing that such firearm will be used to commit a crime of violence' by someone directly harmed by such unlawful conduct."
No comments:
Post a Comment