Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley took aim at his Democratic presidential opponent Bernie Sanders on Monday, saying the senator from Vermont is out of step with the party on guns.
"I think his opinions and his position on this are different than the mainstream of the Democratic Party anyway," O'Malley said of Sanders on local New Hampshire Concord News Radio.
"He voted against the Brady Bill and is someone who has at times even advanced pet pieces of legislation like the immunity for gun manufactures, one of the few things he's gotten through Congress," O'Malley added in a jab at Sander's legislature career.
As O'Malley noted, Sanders as a member of House of Representatives voted against the Brady Bill — which instituted a waiting period for handgun purchases and required background checks for those seeking to buy guns from federally-licensed firearms dealers. Sanders said that year, "people pull the trigger, not the guns themselves."
After the shooting at a community college in Oregon that left 10 dead, Sanders called for strengthening the background check system, prohibiting the sale of guns at gun shows without background checks, and banning semi-automatic assault weapons.
O'Malley, however, said Sanders didn't want "common sense" measurements on guns.
"So he is, I think he's just of the opinion that there's no reason we should have common sense gun safety requirements like background checks and the like," stated the former Marlyand governor. "So that's where he's coming from."
