Hillary: Battle 'Absolutist Theology About the Second Amendment Being Sacrosanct'

Hillary Clinton called for a “national movement” to take on the National Rifle Association, as “my husband beat them, and he got an assault weapons ban which lasted for ten years and did have a positive effect.”

Campaigning in New England, Clinton told Boston ABC affiliate WCVB she’s “just sick of” news like the community college massacre in Roseburg, Ore. Ten were killed by a 26-year-old gunman who was also killed.

“And I feel an absolute urgency for this country to start being sensible about keeping guns away from people who should not have them. I’m going to be pushing this issue,” Clinton vowed. “Universal background checks, a long enough waiting period so that people can’t sneak in under the deadline because the full investigation wasn’t completed. I would like us to be absolutely determined, as I am, to try to do something about this.”

Touting her husband’s assault-weapons fight against the NRA, Clinton added that
“when gun control issues are put on national or put on state or local ballots for referendum, they pass in many instances.”

“So we’re going to go at this from the top down, namely go back to the Congress, go back to try and put together a sensible, bipartisan position that was supported before in the Senate to get to universal background checks,” she said. “But we’re also going to go from the bottom up.”

“I’m going to make this a voting issue, because what the NRA does in their single-minded, absolutist theology about the Second Amendment being sacrosanct, when we know that every constitutional right and amendment can be tailored in an appropriate way without breaching the Constitution, but what they do is to so intimidate and scare legislators because they make it into a single issue for voting. I’m going to try to do everything I can as president to raise up an equally large and vocal group that is going to prove to be a counterbalance.”

Clinton says she’s “going to tell legislators, do not be afraid.”

“Stand up to these people because a majority of the population and a majority of gun owners agree that there should be universal background checks,” she said. “And the NRA has stood in the way.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has taken heat on the campaign trail for his past votes in support of gun rights yet defended his stances as appropriate for the culture of his home state, said this evening that “the shouting at each other must end; the hard work of developing good policy must begin.”

“We need a comprehensive approach. We need sensible gun-control legislation which prevents guns from being used by people who should not have them. We must greatly expand and improve our mental health capabilities so individuals and families can get the psychological help then need when they need it,” Sanders said. “We also have to tone down the incredibly high level of gratuitous violence which permeates our media.”