Jill Stein presidential campaign, 2016/Gun control
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Read below what Jill Stein and the 2016 Green Party Platform said about laws governing guns and firearms.
| CANDIDATE SUMMARY | |
Stein on laws governing guns and firearms
- Vox published an interview with Jill Stein on September 14, 2016, covering a range of policy issues, including immigration, student debt, laws governing guns and firearms, climate change, and foreign relations.[2]
- Stein discussed gun confiscation programs, saying, “It’d be hard to do that at this point. So, we establish background checks and assault weapons ban as a floor. And we add to that stripping the gun manufacturers of their immunity — so currently they have immunity right now from lawsuits holding them accountable for dangerous weapons, and for putting those weapons in the hands of dangerous people. That’s another tool that should be brought to bear that does not have issues with the Second Amendment."
- She mentioned Norway as one model for how to get individuals to give up their guns, saying, "Norway really moved forward with gun control by persuading people to give up their guns, and in order to do that you need to have the proper things in place. So in Norway, among other countries, police have also demilitarized and go without guns. Not in all areas of Norway, but in many. And, interestingly, in those districts where police are not armed, they are actually safer. It’s not only the public that is safer but the police are safer because they cease to become targets. I think we need to begin to move in that direction, and I do believe as a society that we need to disarm because we are now an armed garrison state, and everyone is in the crossfire right now — black lives are in the target hairs, and police are also in the target hairs. We’ve become a culture of open carry — not just guns but assault weapons and sniper rifles."
- In a December 2013 interview with RT, Stein discussed the connection between gun violence and culture. She said, "We have about 100 times the rate of gun homicides and violent gun crimes relative to many countries of Western Europe and we should not be in the business of normalizing violence. ... It’s clear there is a relationship between gun violence and economic violence and poverty, and racial disparities and economic disparities. And the more we become an unjust society, the more we are at risk for continuing gun violence and potentially growing gun violence."[3]
- Stein also criticized the involvement of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in politics. She said, "People don’t trust government because government has been bought and paid for by powerful special interests like the NRA. And the NRA is actually doing a disservice and fails to represent the interests of ordinary gun owners because it has become dominated by big industry. And its policies essentially reflect a marketing strategy to keep selling guns."[3]
- In a third party presidential debate in October 2012, Stein said, "We certainly need an assault weapons ban, but we need more than that. There are some 260 people every day who are injured or killed by gun violence, so it's very important that we ban assault weapons, for starters, but there are other steps that need to be taken quickly. Local communities need to be able to regulate guns, as needed, to deal with their violence. So, we need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. We need background checks, so that the mentally ill are not possessing and using guns. And we need to end the gun show loopholes, as well, because there's far too much violence from guns, which is not needed."[4]
| The 2016 Green Party Platform on criminal justice reform and laws governing guns and firearms | ||||||
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Democracy Now, "Green Party’s Jill Stein Announces She Is Running for President," June 22, 2015
- ↑ Vox, "A conversation with Jill Stein: what the Green Party candidate believes," September 14, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 RT, "Jill Stein: US faces ‘political problem’ in tackling violent gun crime," December 15, 2013
- ↑ Democracy Now, "Expanding the Debate with Third-Party Candidates Jill Stein, Virgil Goode, Rocky Anderson," October 17, 2012
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Green Party, "The 2016 Green Party Platform," accessed August 23, 2016
