Bernie Sanders Defends His Gun Control Record And His Foreign Policies

Throughout his political career, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been hailed for his liberal-leaning policies, which has now led to his surge in the polls among Democrats. He has, however, received criticism for his lax position on gun control and amid recent headlines of massive shootings, Senator Sanders was once again quizzed on his gun control policies.

Bernie Sanders has taken a mixed approach to gun control, partly due to the outdoor culture of his state, Vermont. In 1997, Sanders stated, “Vermont is a rural state in which tens of thousands of people enjoy hunting and own guns. VT is an ‘outdoor’ state — and hunting is a key part of that way of life. I am pro-gun, and pro-hunting. But I don’t believe that hunters need assault weapons and AK-47s to kill deer. I voted for the ban on assault weapons, which brought the wrath of the NRS down on me,” according to On The Issues.

Bernie Sander defended his policies once again while speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of The Union.

“I do not accept the fact that I have been weak on this issue. In fact, I have been strong on this issue. And in fact, coming from a rural state which has almost no gun control, I think I can get beyond the noise and all of these arguments and people shouting at each other, and come up with real, constructive gun control legislation which most significantly gets guns out of the hands of people who should not have them.”

Sanders also mentioned that mental health treatment should be improved.

“When people have mental health issues, when they’re a threat to others or themselves, they should be able to get counseling immediately. That is not the case right now.”

Although Bernie Sanders claims that he is indeed pro-gun, the National Rifle Association (NRA) gave the Vermont Senator an F grading on pro-gun right policies.

Senator Bernie Sander spent his Sunday morning defending his policies. This time, Sanders appeared on ABC where he was grilled on his foreign policy (or lack thereof) by This Week‘s Martha Raddaz as reported by Mediate.

Inquisitr recently published an article on Bernie Sanders’ position on various foreign policy issues. With that said, Sanders barely addressed these issues throughout his campaign.

“In all fairness, we’ve only been in this race for three-and-a-half months, and we’ve been focusing on, quite correctly as you’ve indicated, on the economy, on the collapse of the American middle class, on massive income and wealth inequality.”

Should Bernie Sanders be criticized for his perceived lax gun control policies?

[Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images]