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Bernie Sanders and the Second Amendment

Sander's attitudes on gun control have the liberal/progressive commentators befuddled, or at least more befuddled than they generally are. The one explanation they can put up is that it's a posture to please his Vermont constituents. As the Christian Science Monitor puts it, "Why would a candidate who is staking his campaign on progressive reform be so soft on gun control? The simplest explanation, as my Middlebury colleague Bert Johnson argues, is that, like it or not, Bernie is representing the preferences of a good number of his Vermont constituents."

But that's a little hard to accept, given that when he was a youngster in 1972, and a leader of the Liberty Union Party, it adopted a very pro-gun plank.

"The party, while Sanders served on its executive committee, adopted a platform in 1972 that called for the "abolition of all laws which interfere with the Constitutional right of citizens to bear arms." This may suggest that Sanders's relatively permissive views on gun ownership, already the subject of much consternation among liberals, could be rooted in sincere principle--not simply in the practical realities of winning election in rural Vermont. While this position might irk the average Democrat, it could ultimately serve to broaden his appeal: Sanders has said he wants to forge a coalition that can "cross traditional liberal-conservative lines.""

I can see that. In fact, the true left (as opposed to liberal/progressive) opposition to gun control can be quite consistent. If you believe the present establishment is run by a corporate oligarchy, why would you want it to have a monopoly on arms? I have a friend, an attorney who's said that he is a socialist, and feels insulted to be called a liberal. He's thoroughly pro-2A, and loves to point out to liberals that when the wealthy elite call for disarming the working class, they always make sure to exempt private security guards, which are their own hired armies.