In the early 1990s, if anyone was to ask me about the topic of guns, I would have said there are multiple reasons for people to have guns, particularly if one lived in more rural areas, namely for hunting and for protection. I would even add the right of people to overthrow the US and state or local governments, though I also recognize that position is filled with tension because, if one tries to overthrow the government, and fails, then one is subject to treason laws. At the time, I was skeptical of wide ranging bans of guns, and I think I still am. I also viewed the 2nd Amendment as having some limited right of individuals to own guns, notwithstanding the first part of the sentence that is the 2nd Amendment, "(a) well-regulated militia..." Over the years, and over the many, many gun deaths and gun-related massacres, and learning more about the development of guns that can kill so many people at a clip, I have had to re-evaluate some of my more theoretically-based arguments supporting gun rights. I admit to being influenced by Justice Scalia's majority opinion in Heller v. DC, particularly Section III of the decision, which I have analyzed elsewhere in attacking a San Diego, CA based federal judge who terribly misread Heller.
This article about Bernie Sanders' views about guns in the early 1990s is too slanted in accusing, without basis, Sanders of pandering right then left on gun rights and gun ownership. When I read the article, I felt Sanders channeling my own views on the topic over the decades. I also see how Sanders can sometimes fall back into pro-gun owners' rights the way I am when confronted with an urban or suburban person who simply thinks about guns in those environments, instead of in rural environments. On the other hand, I have become less patient with those who scream about saluting the flag and calling themselves patriots when they also say how much they need their guns to fight drones, machine guns, tanks, and trained soldiers--all to fight our government if it provides health insurance to American. I think those people may be be charitably called fair-weather patriots at best. I am also aware of the argument that at least one of the primary reasons for crafting the 2nd Amendment was to protect and promote slave patrols. See here. However, see here and here for a more nuanced view of that argument, which is one I still use against extremist gun right people, but note it is not the only reason for the crafting of the 2nd Amendment. There is still a sense among certain Americans that the 2nd Amendment is a white man's right more than any other person's right, which one can certainly see in the way the US Supreme Court, in the the 1876 Cruikshank decision, was not friendly to individual gun rights when it was free African-Americans seeking the right to arm themselves against white people who wanted to terrorize African-Americans. There is also the famous Garry Wills essay in the New York Review of Books from 1995, which definitely enlightened my views on the history of the 2nd Amendment. If anyone wants to understand the history of the 2nd Amendment, Wills' essay is required reading.
I think today's article about Sanders is also well worth reading because it highlights why I like Sanders' appeal to people in rural areas. Bernie is truly thinking about the feelings of such people, and recognizes in his heart and gut their need for home protection and hunting rights. He also correctly worried about the effects of a tort law bill that would have subjected small gun shop owners to products liability lawsuits, where there was no allegation the local gun shop owner had done anything more than sell the gun. Bernie supported the bill to the extent the gun shop owner could be held responsible if (a) the gun shop owner sold a gun the gun shop owner illegally obtained, or (b) the gun owner knew or should have known the purchaser of the gun did not have a right to a gun (felon, mentally ill, etc.). But Bernie was concerned, as I am, about dragging a local gun shop owner into strict products litigation over a manufacturer's design of a gun or manufacture of a gun, where the gun owner had no idea of any issue therein. The one caveat that caught my eye was Bernie's concern in 2005 for a local, but large employer, gun manufacturer in the State, but there is where politics meets compromise, something Bernie has done throughout his life when there was no other way. It is why I wince at how a guy can be my-way-or-the-highway when being the Amendment King.
As Krystal Ball, co-host of The Hill online magazine morning Internet show, Rising, remarked the other day about Bloomberg's negative ads against Bernie for not having an extreme pro-gun rights stance, I, too, am happy to let this information go far and wide. This history shows Bernie is the real moderate on this issue, and is again within the mainstream of American opinion. Imagine that. :)
