Old NRA slogan: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  “Sandy Hook has prompted much-needed conversations about gun control and mental-health care. But it should also be inspiring a serious discussion of nurturers. The people who, both paid and unpaid, are raising the next generation. (They’re mostly women, yes — old gender habits die hard — but certainly not exclusively.) There is some truth to the NRA bumper sticker ‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.’ And talking about the role of caregivers in our society is a great way to tackle the second half of that slogan.”  [New York Magazine, 12/18/12]

Bernie Sanders: “People pull the trigger, not the guns themselves.” “Independent U.S. House candidate Bernard Sanders received a warm welcome from a group of Ludlow sportsmen.   […]  Sanders said he did not believe ‘gun control is a panacea for the forces of crime.’  ‘People pull the trigger, not the guns themselves,’ he said.” [Rutland Herald, 10/22/90]

The NRA: “Expanding background checks… will not prevent the next shooting.” “Expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting, will not solve violent crime and will not keep our kids safe in schools. While the overwhelming rejection of President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg’s ‘universal’ background check agenda is a positive development, we have a broken mental health system that is not going to be fixed with more background checks at gun shows. The sad truth is that no background check would have prevented the tragedies in Newtown, Aurora or Tucson. We need a serious and meaningful solution that addresses crime in cities like Chicago, addresses mental health deficiencies, while at the same time protecting the rights of those of us who are not a danger to anyone. President Obama should be as committed to dealing with the gang problem that is tormenting honest people in his hometown as he is to blaming law-abiding gun owners for the acts of psychopathic murderers.” [Statement from the NRA Regarding Toomey-Manchin Background Check Proposal, 4/10/13]

The NRA: “Waiting periods and other laws delaying handgun purchases have never reduced crime.” “Waiting periods and other laws delaying handgun purchases have never reduced crime. Historically, most states with such laws have had higher violent crime rates than other states and have been more likely to have violent crime and murder rates higher than national rates.” [NRA-ILA document, accessed 7/15/15]

Bernie Sanders: “Anyone who has any illusions that gun control will cause a significant dent in the very serious problem of crime is mistaken.”  “People who believe gun control will slow down the increasing violence in America are wrong, Vermont’s Congressman said Sunday. ‘Anyone who has any illusions that gun control will cause a significant dent in the very serious problem of crime is mistaken,’ said representative Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.”  [Rutland Herald, 10/28/91]

Bernie Sanders: [handgun purchase waiting periods don’t address] “the root causes of crime and violence.” “Sanders also said a handgun waiting period would not get at what he called ‘the root causes of crime and violence’ – poverty, poor education and lack of police protection and programs designed to keep young people out of trouble.” [Times Argus, 3/31/91]

2013: Bernie Sanders: “If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.”  “That could be because Sanders — who first won election to the U.S. House when the National Rifle Association targeted his Republican opponent — has largely opposed federal firearm laws, calling gun control an issue for states to decide. His position seemed to shift in January, when he intimated in a written statement that he’d support federal bans on assault weapons and high-capacity clips proposed by Obama. But in last week’s interview, he seemed to back away again from such measures, saying, ‘If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.’ Asked whether he’d vote for an assault-weapons ban if it reached the Senate floor, he said, ‘We’ll see. We’ll see what other things it is part of.’”  [Seven Days, 3/13/13]

Wayne LaPierre: “We’ve always supported instant background checks.”  “At the time of the ad purchase, the NRA was treading carefully on background checks. The group supported the concept, so long as there was no user fee associated with it. It opposed legislation that would allow the government to retain information gleaned from background checks, and pushed for a short time period for the checks. ‘We’ve always supported instant background checks,’ LaPierre declared at a Friends of NRA banquet in South Carolina in May 1999, according to a newspaper archive search. ‘We say if it’s a legitimate gun show — and we define a gun show as 10 or more exhibitors — you have to draw the line somewhere, and I think that’s a — the best way you can draw the line — then we support the check,’ LaPierre said a month later during an interview on Fox News. Asked by the host whether the NRA was protecting gun shows, LaPierre said, ‘That’s ridiculous … I mean, the fact is that we’re supporting the bill in the Senate … that provides a check on every sale at every gun show, no loopholes at all.’”  [Huffington Post, 1/31/13]

Bernie Sanders: “I have supported from day one the instant background check.” “HOLT: Senator Sanders, last week Secretary Clinton called you quote, “a pretty reliable vote for the gun lobby.” Right before the debate you changed your position on immunity from lawsuits for gun manufacturers, can you tell us why? SANDERS: Well, I think Secretary Clinton knows that what she says is very disingenuous. I have a D-minus voting record from the NRA. I was in 1988, there were three candidates running for congress in the state of Vermont, I stood up to the gun lobby and came out and maintained the position that in this country we should not be selling military style assault weapons. I have supported from day one the instant background check to make certain that people who should have guns do not have guns. And that includes people of criminal backgrounds, people who are mentally unstable. I support what President Obama is doing in terms of trying to close the gun show loop holes and I think it should be a federal crime if people act as dormant (ph).” [Transcript, New York Times via Federal News Service, Democratic Presidential Debate, 1/17/16]

Wayne LaPierre: “Our Sandy Hook promise is — is always to make this country safer… I would hope we could convince some of these companies… to stop putting out such incredibly violent video games that desensitize.” “Senator, our Sandy Hook promise is — is always to make this country safer, which is why we’ve advocated immediately putting police, armed security, in schools; fixing the mental health system; computerizing the records of those mentally adjudicated. I would hope we could convince some of these companies that are just — I’m not talking about First Amendment, I know they have a right to do it, to stop putting out such incredibly violent video games that desensitize.” [NPR, 1/30/13]

Bernie Sanders: “[I]n terms of how we have to deal with these mass killings… if you look at these video games… there is so much gratuitous violence… It desensitizes you to death and killing.” “[I]n terms of how we have to deal with these mass killings is – you know, I get appalled, and I say that as a father of four and a grandfather of seven – if you look at these video games, if you look at some of the movies out there, some stuff that’s on TV, there is so much gratuitous violence, and I can’t help but think that that just desensitizes children and people in general to what it is about. You know, you have films where people are spraying guns and killing people. It desensitizes you to death and killing.” [Brunch with Bernie, 12/21/12]

NRA Institute for Legislative Action: The post-Newtown assault weapons ban “wouldn’t reduce crime.” “Contrary to the suggestion of President Obama and others, S. 150 goes far beyond ‘restoring’ or ‘reinstating’ the 1994 ban. S. 150 is the biggest proposed gun and magazine ban in American history. It would undermine the right of people to use firearms for self-defense, and that alone is sufficient reason to reject it. It also wouldn’t reduce crime. Studies—which Sen. Feinstein plainly misquotes—show that her previous ban didn’t reduce crime, in part because criminals rarely use ‘assault weapons’ and rarely fire more than a few shots.” [NRA-ILA, 2/5/13]

Bernie Sanders said that the post-Newtown assault weapons ban would not “have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.”“His position seemed to shift in January, when he intimated in a written statement that he’d support federal bans on assault weapons and high-capacity clips proposed by Obama. But in last week’s interview, he seemed to back away again from such measures, saying, ‘If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.’ Asked whether he’d vote for an assault-weapons ban if it reached the Senate floor, he said, ‘We’ll see. We’ll see what other things it is part of.’” [Seven Days, 3/13/13]

Pro-NRA Congresswoman: “Why aren’t proponents of bans on firearms calling baseball bats assault baseball bats?” ‘The fact is that more deaths have been inflicted using fists and knives and baseball bats than with a gun. In fact, one-and-a-half times as many homicides are committed with blunt objects such as a baseball bat, over two times as many homicides with fists, and five times as many with knives. So why aren’t proponents of bans on firearms calling baseball bats assault baseball bats or assault knives? Well, the reason is because the American people know that objects are only tools of people who wish to do others harm. They are not the cause. Now, it’s a slogan, it’s a bumper sticker, but it is true: guns don’t kill people; people do.’ [Rep Hartzler remarks, 4/25/13]

Bernie Sanders: “If somebody sells you a baseball bat and you hit somebody over the head you’re not going to sue the baseball bat manufacture?” “SANDERS: Oh this Amtrak thing… Let me tell you about this Amtrak thing it’s a very good example.  Yeah I voted— Oh the gun thing.  The gun… ah… manufacturers.  Yeah– you know what?  Yes you’re right that’s how I voted.  Why did I vote that way?  Because if somebody has a gun and somebody steals that gun and they shoot somebody, do you really think it makes sense to blame the manufacture of that weapon? ASKER: Yes and I’ll tell you why.  SANDERS: Well…. [Crosstalk]  Okay, the point is that I made is that if somebody sells you a baseball bat and you hit somebody over the head you’re not going to sue the baseball bat manufacturer.”  [Bernie Sanders, 7/9/15]