--- title: Democratic Debate: Sanders, Clinton Disagree on Guns description: Clinton calls gun manufacturers greedy, while Sanders says manufacturing guns isn't the problem canonical: https://time.com/4249180/democratic-debate-sanders-clinton-guns/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-07T03:26:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:25.136Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sanders and Clinton Disagree on How to Solve America’s Gun Crisis og:description: Clinton calls gun manufacturers greedy, while Sanders says manufacturing guns isn't the problem og:url: https://time.com/4249180/democratic-debate-sanders-clinton-guns/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt732b1cb742bfbbd3/69888072f887dcdbe3e94ec8/bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-flint-michigan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sanders and Clinton Disagree on How to Solve America’s Gun Crisis twitter:description: Clinton calls gun manufacturers greedy, while Sanders says manufacturing guns isn't the problem twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt732b1cb742bfbbd3/69888072f887dcdbe3e94ec8/bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-flint-michigan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sanders and Clinton Disagree on How to Solve America’s Gun Crisis > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 7, 2016 3:26 AM UTC  Sen. Bernie Sanders makes a point during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan-Flint in Flint, Mich. on March 6, 2016. Sen. Bernie Sanders makes a point during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan-Flint in Flint, Mich. on March 6, 2016. Carlos Osorio—AP by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 7, 2016 3:26 AM UTC Both candidates on the [Democratic debate stage ](http://time.com/4248784/clinton-sanders-flint-debate/)Sunday night were critical of the proliferation of guns in the U.S., but their solutions on how to fix the problem differed significantly. During the [debate in Flint, Mich.](http://time.com/4249183/democratic-debate-flint-full-text-transcript-seventh), the father of a girl who barely survived an Uber driver’s recent shooting rampage about 150 miles west in Kalamazoo, Mich., asked Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton how they would address this “serious epidemic.” Clinton responded that she would close “loopholes” that allow gun purchases without background checks, including at gun shows, and that she would hold gun manufacturers accountable by allowing families of crime victims to sue. “You talk about corporate greed?” she said, referencing Sanders’ frequent attacks on Wall Street. “The gun manufacturers sell guns to make as much money as they can make.” But Sanders replied that it made little sense to blame law-abiding gun manufacturers for crimes people committed after legally purchasing their weapons. “What happened at Sandy Hook, what happened in Michigan, what has happened far too often all over this country is a terrible, terrible tragedy, and we have got to do everything we can, as I mentioned a moment ago, to end these mass killings,” Sanders said. “But it, as I understand it, Anderson \[Cooper\], and maybe I’m wrong, what you’re really talking about is people saying, ‘Let’s end gun manufacturing in America.’ That’s the implications of that, and I don’t agree with that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4249180/democratic-debate-sanders-clinton-guns/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4249180/democratic-debate-sanders-clinton-guns/"},"headline":"Sanders and Clinton Disagree on How to Solve America’s Gun Crisis","datePublished":"2016-03-07T03:26:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:25.136Z","description":"Clinton calls gun manufacturers greedy, while Sanders says manufacturing guns isn't the problem","url":"https://time.com/4249180/democratic-debate-sanders-clinton-guns/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Clinton","Guns","Bernie Sanders","Flint"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt732b1cb742bfbbd3/69888072f887dcdbe3e94ec8/bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-flint-michigan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt732b1cb742bfbbd3/69888072f887dcdbe3e94ec8/bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-flint-michigan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton","caption":"Sen. 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