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Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally in Laramie, Wyo., on April 5, 2016.(Photo: The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP)
Lonnie Phillips is filing for bankruptcy because he owes $203,000 to the company that sold his stepdaughter’s killer 4,000 rounds of ammunition over the Internet.
A federal judge threw out his lawsuit against Lucky Gunner, and now the Phillips family must pay its legal fees under Colorado law.
As the Democratic primary race turns to New York, where the gun issue looms large, Clinton will seize upon their story and those like it. The Phillips’ daughter, Jessica Ghawi, died in the 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo.
Lucky Gunner was shielded from prosecution under a 2005 law that grants gun makers and sellers immunity from prosecution for crimes committed with their products. Sanders voted for the law, though he’s recently wavered over whether he supports it.
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“We don’t have that much money to pay them, and they can take our house,” Phillips told USA TODAY. “Right now we’re living in a trailer traveling and speaking around the country trying to get people to understand how egregious this law is.”
“I don’t think he had any idea of the repercussions this law would cause,” Phillips said of Sanders. “I would like Bernie Sanders to at least apologize to us for the heartache this has caused.”
Clinton has made Sanders’ record on guns a major theme throughout the Democratic primary. It’s one of the few issues where she’s to the left of the senator from the rural state of Vermont<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at a time when the Democratic Party is becoming more liberal. Yet, until now, it hasn’t been front-and-center.
During a recent New York Daily News editorial meeting, Sanders was asked whether victims of a crime committed with a gun should be able to sue the manufacturer. “No, I don’t,” he said, prompting a front-page reading “Bernie’s Sandy Hook Shame” and recriminations from Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Gov. Dan Malloy as well as a family member of a shooting victim from Newtown, Conn.
The Sanders campaign responded by calling Clinton a flip-flopper on guns. In an email, campaign manager Jeff Weaver said she’s “been all over the map.” Clinton attacked then-Sen. Barack Obama for being too tough on guns in 2008, prompting him to call her “Annie Oakley,” said Weaver.
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Sanders is also co-sponsoring a recent bill to repeal parts of the 2005 law. Sanders’ concern has been about small stores that support the hunting community, Weaver said on MSNBC Tuesday night. “He is certainly in favor of making sure anybody who’s a bad actor is punished,” said Weaver.
Clinton is pouncing on the issue.
In a Wednesday morning interview on MSNBC, she called guns “one of my biggest contrasts” with Sanders. “That he would place gun manufacturers’ rights and immunity from liability against the parents of children killed at Sandy Hook — it’s just unimaginable to me.” On Wednesday, her campaign organized a press call with surrogates blasting Sanders’ comments.
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“The gun issue is tailor-made for her to use against Sanders in New York right now,” said Robert Spitzer, political science chair at SUNY Cortland in New York, who’s published five books on gun control.
New York was the first state after Newtown to enact strict<span style="color: Red;">*</span>new gun laws, with the SAFE Act of 2013 that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called the “toughest” law in the U.S. Statewide, there’s greater support for gun control than there nationally, and despite higher levels upstate, gun ownership has been declining in New York City and the suburbs, where most people live, said Spitzer.
The issue is also timely because the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims are suing the makers of the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle used to kill 20 elementary students and six teachers in Newtown.
Hillary Clinton speaks at a labor gathering in Philadelphia on April 6, 2016.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Dominick Reuter, AFP/Getty Images)
“Hillary’s people should be running ads all over the airwaves” on the lawsuit, said Spitzer. “It’ll win sympathy and attract attention. It will work for her politically.”
New York is shaping up as a major battlefield after Sanders beat Clinton in six of the past seven Democratic contests. She’s ahead of him in polls in New York,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but Sanders could benefit from the state's strong progressive bent.
The one issue where Sanders is vulnerable is guns. Phillips believes the bill Sanders is co-sponsoring falls short. “Bernie wants to throw us a bone, he knows it’s not going to go through,” he said.
“He has not come out full-force against this law,” said Phillips, who’s pressing Sanders for a meeting.
In the Newtown suit, the families argue that gun companies are negligent to market and sell a military-style weapon to the general public and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that companies shouldn’t sell armor-piercing ammunition over the Internet.
Jessica Ghawi was one of 12 people killed in the 2012 Colorado movie theater shooting. She was 24 years old and finishing a degree in journalism and sports broadcasting in Denver.
Lucky Gunner responded in an email saying that the Phillips' lawsuit was “orchestrated and funded” by the pro-gun control group Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
“It appears the Brady Center intends to leave the Phillips paying the bill,” the company said, noting it hasn’t received any reimbursement. “When the Brady Center does pay the funds will be donated to more than 75 groups committed to protecting against future assaults,” the company said.
The Brady Campaign has offered to help the family raise the money, but Phillips says they’d rather file for bankruptcy..
“It’s the principle,” he said.
“Would you pay $200,000 to the people that sold armor-piercing bullets over the Internet without asking for his drivers’ license?”
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