Sen. Bernie Sanders checked after Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley touted his record gun control in the state, reminding the governor that Baltimore is hardly “one of the safest cities in America.”
O’Malley was responding to a question about his record on gun control during Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate, saying he passed comprehensive gun safety legislation that included provisions mandating background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
“We got it done in my state by leading with principle, and that’s what we need to do as a country,” the Maryland governor finished.
Sanders cut in to check O’Malley’s framing on the reforms, saying: “With all due respect, I think it’s fair to say Baltimore is not now one of the safest cities in America.”
The homicide rate in Baltimore has spiked sharply since riots over the April death of Freddie Gray in police custody.
Nice NRA talking point there Sanders.
Meh. What Bernie said was certainly true, but why bother? O’Malley isn’t getting any traction anyway. Seemed like Bernie was just cranky at being ganged up on on the gun issue, saw an opening, and took it. In any case, O’Malley walked right into it.
I like that Gov O’Malley has changed the terminology from “gun control” to “gun saftey.” If Democrates want to start to turn the tide of the NRA controlling any discussion of guns they need to find new ways of discussing the issue. It would seem using the term Gun Saftey is a very good start.
What does it say about TPM when they can’t even spell Martin O’Malley’s name correctly in the headline? I’ll tell you what it says to me: We at TPM are so careless and sloppy, you would be a fool to put your trust in anything you read here.
You left Brooklyn to become mayor of Burlington, population is a whopping 40,000? The whole state of Vermont doesn’t even have real a city. People who live in cities (most of us) don’t take cues from yokels. You should know better than to spread that kind of shit, Bernie.