Sanders: ‘Of course’ Sandy Hook victims should be able to sue gun manufacturers

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Sunday said Sandy Hook victims should be able to sue gun manufacturers for the 2012 elementary school shooting that killed 20 students and six adults, backtracking on previous comments.

{mosads}“Of course they have a right to sue, anyone has a right to sue,” the Vermont senator said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Sanders in an interview with the New York Daily News last week initially said the Sandy Hook family members should not have the right to sue gun manufacturers for damages.

“No, I don’t,” he said, in response to a question from the editorial board.

Rival Hillary Clinton attacked Sanders for those comments, calling his stance “unimaginable” and one of her “biggest contrasts” with the Vermont senator.

Sanders on Sunday said that a gun store owner who legally sells a weapon shouldn’t be held liable for crimes committed with it.

He said he opposes the sales of assault-style weapons in the U.S., such as the one used at Sandy Hook.

“That’s the kind of weapon that caused the horrible tragedy in Sandy Hook,” Sanders said. “Those weapons should not be made in the United States of America. So in that sense, I agree with the Sandy Hook parents.”

A state Superior Court judge last Thursday refused to throw out the lawsuit against Bushmaster Firearms, the company that made the rifle used to kill 26 people in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

The families of the victims sued the manufacturer, arguing the AR-15 should never have been sold to a civilian.

In the past, the gun industry has been protected by federal law from being held liable for crimes committed with its products.

But Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ruled that federal law “does not prevent lawyers for the families of Sandy Hook victims from arguing that the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle is a military weapon and should not have been sold to civilians.”

—This report was updated at 9:57 a.m.