Does Bernie Sanders owe the families of Sandy Hook an apology? Yes. And no.
Was he wrong to say gun manufacturers should not be sued by victims and the families of people wounded or killed by their guns — even as a Connecticut judge says they can be? Yes. And no.
Just as politicians like to pretend that women only have one issue, abortion, and give us simplistic answers to a very complex issue, so it is with guns.
When Sanders was asked by the Daily News if he thought victims of gun violence should be able to sue the manufacturer, he was straightforward. “No, I don’t,” he replied.
Then Erica Smegielski, daughter of the murdered Newton elementary school principal tweeted “Shame on you, @BernieSanders try living one hour of our lives.” The Daily News headlined with “Bernie’s Sandy Hook Shame” and Hillary Clinton blasted Bernie at the debate and pushed it hard the next day.
The issue of guns — there was more than one mass shooting per day in the U.S. last year — is as explosive as an assault rifle firing on a grenade. Like abortion, you either have to be for it or agin’ it. And pols make a lot of noise, not to mention bucks, by very loudly being for it or agin’ it.
BERNIE SANDERS RELEASED HIS 2014 TAX RETURNS AND THEY’RE AS BORING AS HE PROMISED
What about being reasonable about it? Nah.
As criminal as I believe the sale of assault weapons to be, they are legal. Federal gun control has been impossible. An underage kid can’t buy liquor or cigarettes, but no federal law prohibits the possession by minors of long guns like semi-automatics, some of which fire 13.3 rounds per second.
Our legislators, pressured by NRA gun lobbyists, would rather have the blood of children on their jackets than defy the big money vote-getters. They don’t want to lose their fat gigs.
Would they work for drug dealers because they needed the job? Don’t answer that.
When the government doesn’t do the right thing, than legislators who must instinctively know how wrong it is to sell assault weapons should at least backdoor the right thing like they did with tobacco and alcohol.
Those substances weren’t banned, but by shooting the manufacturers in their bottom lines, those industries were forced into taking the moral high road, no matter how lowlife their previous policies had been. Money talks, everybody balks.
When liquor advertising was restricted, the industry took it upon themselves to be more responsible in how they sold and promoted their products.
If the tobacco companies had been smarter earlier, they may have headed off a lot of their legal woes and tremendous financial losses before they allegedly became more self-regulating.
Likewise, the gun industry should self-regulate — because the lawsuits are coming.
Does Bernie owe the Sandy Hook families an apology? Maybe not, because the guns in the hands of psychotic Adam Lanza were tragically legal. Should he have apologized for being so insensitive about it? Definitely. By refusing to do so, he shot himself in the foot.
EXPRESS LINES
Voters are concerned that 74-year-old Bernie doesn’t have the stamina of those youngsters, 68-year old Hillary and 69-year-old Trump. No?
Within a few hours, old Bern went from brawling in Brooklyn to orating in Rome, then flew back again to stump out the competition. That Bernie! He’s got the stamina of a 69-year-old! … Marla Maples told Access Hollywood Live’s Billy Bush and Kit Hoover that her marriage to Donald failed but that she loved his vulnerability and ability to manifest his dreams.
Donald told me back then that he loved her gorgeousness, but she was a social butterfly and he’d rather stay home and eat McDonald’s. No wonder it didn’t work. Marla was manifesting peace, love and granola and he was manifesting Big Macs … A woman in New York City caught her boyfriend on video having sex in her apartment. With her 10-pound Maltese. She said, “He’s not a bad guy. He’s probably been doing this a long time, since he was little.” With who — a Chihuahua?
BARRON TAKES A BAD SHOT
Assemblyman Charles Barron called Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson a betrayer of blacks for recommending no jail time for former NYPD Officer Peter Liang, who killed unarmed Akai Gurley in a darkened stairwell in the projects. Ill-trained by the NYPD? Yes. Deliberate killer? No.
African-American Thompson a racist? Absurd. The DA is an honest, fair-minded man.
You didn’t hear Barron howling racism however, when Officer Liang was denied a mistrial last week after The News revealed a juror, Michael Vargas, hid his father’s manslaughter conviction. Turns out that pre-trial Vargas had even posted disparaging remarks about cops.
Barron, meantime, disrespectfully chatted on his phone as two Vietnam vets were given a standing ovation during Vietnam Veteran’s Remembrance Day in the Assembly. Barron sniffed afterwards, “The Vietnam War was an American imperialistic war that should not have happened.”
A hater being elected to the Assembly shouldn’t have happened either, but it did.
FINDING LOST ART
Ever dreamed of finding that bazillion-buck lost artwork in your attic? Take heart. Or better yet, move to Europe.
A couple in Toulouse, France found not a Toulouse-Lautrec but a Caravaggio masterpiece, “Judith Beheading Holofernes” worth $140 million big ones.
What? Caravaggio was maybe the greatest painter — and greatest artist rogue — in history. In fact, for her birthday, my daughter, carrying only a backpack, took herself to see every Caravaggio in three countries in eight days.
Me? I once “discovered” and bought a Rembrandt etching for a couple hundred at an auction, which I thought was worth a cool million. Close. Antiques Roadshow said I didn’t overpay — if I included the frame.
IF I MODERATED TOP 5 N.Y. DEBATE OMISSIONS
1. The Equal Rights Amendment guaranteeing equality to women died in 1982. What would you do to make it part of the Constitution?
2. Glass-Steagall, repealed under President Bill Clinton, is cited as a big reason banks became the greedy monsters that ate America. Would you reinstate it?
3. If you’re really a New Yorker like you say you are, what’s: A falaitah, a schmear, a slice a’ Sicilian? How much is a street cart cuppa Joe? Pronounce the following word: H-o-u-s-t-o-n.
4. Have you ever been to the Statue of Liberty? (Correct answer: No.)
5. What is the most expensive per square foot of real estate in New York City? (Answer: Radio host Mark Simone says: A parking space!)
FOR OPENERS, A LOT OF BLOOD AND GORE
Yes, I saw the brilliant “Game of Thrones” season opener. Spoiler Alert! Everyone from hot land, cold land, dragon land and wall land stab and mutilate everyone in hot land, cold land, dragon land and wall land.
Buckets of blood splatter and tremendous topless babes abound. Question of the Year: Is the only person with a pronounceable name — Jon Snow — dead? Tragically, I became so Snow-blinded by his beauty, I couldn’t tell.