Bernie Sanders’ statement immediately following news of the Charleston Massacre:
Senator Sanders expressed his sorrow and described the crime by its rightful description: a racist hate crime. When a reporter asked him to comment on Gun Control, Bernie stopped him and refused to talk about it at that point in time.
Nine people were massacred inside a church. The best way, the correct and respectful way to honor them is to leave politics for another day.
The Charleston Massacre had nothing to do with gun control. It was a racist hate crime. Gun control isn’t what will end white supremacist hate. Combating white supremacy with better public education and tougher enforcement will. Mixing in politics with condolences detracts from the expression of sorrow and opens the door for reductionist debates that are untimely and inappropriate.
Bernie Sanders wants to talk about guns. But not right now. – CNNPolitics.com
By Dan Merica, CNN
Fri June 19, 2015
Las Vegas (CNN)Bernie Sanders says he wants to talk — at length — about guns.
Just not now.
Two days after a white man walked into a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine people, the Vermont senator and presidential candidate took a cautious approach on gun control Friday when speaking with reporters after an event in Las Vegas.