Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said in a radio interview Friday that he believes in the hunting culture of states like Vermont, his home state, and New Hampshire, where he is leading Hillary Clinton in primary polls.
"Absolutely, it is," Sanders said when New Hampshire radio host Jack Heath noted that gun ownership was "a pretty coveted" right in Vermont.
"I believe, you know, people in my state have been hunting—it's part of the culture of the state of Vermont, it's part of the culture of New Hampshire, and I believe in that culture," Sanders continued. "But I also will tell you that most gun owners understand that guns should not be held by people who are criminals or by people who have serious mental issues."
In the interview, Sanders was asked if he was worried about "another sleeper cell attack" in the U.S. The Vermont senator said he did, but that he worried about "a lot of things," including mass shootings.
"I do. I do. I worry about a lot of things, including the kinds of mass shootings—it's not just a sleeper cell," he said. "We have seen folks born and raised in the United States of America — we just saw a guy a few weeks ago in Colorado Springs kill three people. We've seen that time and time and time again. So we have to be vigilant in making sure that we screen people who are coming into this country. We need good intelligence."
Sanders also said his team was still working on figuring out the specifics of his income tax proposal, which he said would "hit just the very wealthiest people in our nation."
When Sanders went on Heath's show in July, he told the host he would give him a "definitive answer" on income tax in "two or three weeks."