The Stance on Guns in America Raised a Dialogue Between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders

“Hillary Clinton took on Sen. Bernie Sanders for his stance on guns at the first Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, saying he was “not at all” tough on guns. The debate’s moderator, Anderson Cooper, asked Clinton if the Vermont senator was tough enough on guns. ‘No, not at all,’ Clinton responded -– coming out of the gate strong on one of the only issues where she is considered to the left of Sanders… ‘Senator Sanders did vote five times against the Brady Bill,’ she continued. She also said he voted for a bill that helped protect the gun industry, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. ‘He also did vote as he said for this immunity provision. I voted against it,’ Clinton said. ‘I was in the senate at the same time. It wasn’t that complicated to me. It was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in America.’ In response to the criticism, Sanders defended his record, but focused on the need to build consensus across the aisle, saying he is from a rural state. ‘What I can tell Secretary Clinton, that all the shouting in the world is not going to do what I would hope all of us want,’ he continued. In the past, Sanders voted against the Brady Bill and for a bill that ‘protects gun manufactures from lawsuits from victims of gun violence.’ At the CNN debate on Tuesday, held at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas, Cooper asked Sanders whether he believes that gun manufactures should be free from liability. ‘Of course not,’ Sanders said. ‘Do I think that a gun shop in the state of Vermont that sells legally a gun to somebody, and that somebody goes out and does something crazy, that that gun shop owner should be held responsible? I don’t.’ ‘On the other hand,’ he continued, ‘Where you have manufacturers and gun shops knowingly giving guns to criminals or aiding and abetting that, of course, we should take action.’”

Explanation: Bernie Sanders in this article stated that his opponent former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had “misstated” his statement that people should stop “shouting” about gun control. In order to capture the attention of his audience, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders over-exaggerates his arguments and makes his opponents look bad. In one particular response to a question about his contradictory beliefs on gun control, Sanders used the logical fallacy, Straw Man. This logical fallacy misrepresents the position on a situation. After being asked about gun control, Sanders says, “When you have gun shops knowingly giving guns to criminals, or aiding and embedding that, of course we should take action.” Instead of taking the approach that guns should be banned simply because of the danger that can be caused if the wrong person gets hold of one, Sanders decided to make a statement about how people who sell guns are completely aware of the fact that they are selling them to criminals. While there may be cases in which stores with weapons sell their products to known violent people, Sanders has no evidence that this is a constant problem. He makes a claim about people in order to make himself seem like the only viable option for bettering this nation. This logical fallacy is effective for Sanders in the sense that he is able to make eliminating gun availability appear to be by far the safest option. For those who sell guns or are more familiar with data on the difficulty in purchasing a gun, however, Sanders would come off as being ignorant.