It almost feels like a reversal of Ron Paul's approach to gaining support from voters who would otherwise vote democrat if it weren't for his stance on marijuana. Perhaps Sanders is taking this opportunity (airing on the conservative news venue, CNN) to appeal to conservative voters and the issues that actually impact their day-to-day life: fleeting gun ownership rights.

As a resident of typically blue-voting CT, I don't think this kind of stance will help Sanders on winning the democratic nomination. It seems to me that many liberals are vehemently against gun ownership.

It's an interesting stance, nonetheless, with that sort of "common sense" logical appeal:

If somebody has a gun and it falls into the hands of a murderer and the murderer kills somebody with a gun, do you hold the gun manufacturer responsible? Not any more than you would hold a hammer company responsible if somebody beats somebody over the head with a hammer. That is not what a lawsuit should be about

and

Folks who do not like guns is fine. But we have millions of people who are gun owners in this country -- 99.9% of those people obey the law. I want to see real, serious debate and action on guns, but it is not going to take place if we simply have extreme positions on both sides. I think I can bring us to the middle.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Sanders, but I remain highly critical of his approach to campaigning (I don't think it's possible for a genuine candidate to pull off a win without caving in to some insidious funding or appealing to the masses--re: Obama). I'm sure he and the people working on his campaign know what they're doing better than I do. Here's to hoping for the best.

I think that Bernie Sanders saying he can bring the two camps to the middle on the guns issue and then still advocating an "assault weapons" ban, shows the disconnect between the two sides on the issue. An AWB covers the most popular rifle in the US, the AR15, and does nothing to reduce gun violence (logically and historically). I think this is a case of a politician once again trying to paint his stance on a issue as something else than what he has voted by using uplifting phrases.

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