Sanders called out for using debunked gun claim

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A Second Amendment activist group is calling out Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders for using data from a 25-year-old survey that has been discredited.

The recent ad from the democratic socialist candidate claimed: "Forty percent of the guns in this country are sold without any background checks. We have to end the absurdity of the gun show loophole."

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, challenged the claim.

"Truth always seems to be the first casualty when gun control advocates start talking," he said, "but Bernie ought to know better. That 40% claim has been debunked so many times in the past, especially when Barack Obama used it, that one would think Sanders might have heard about it.

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"The Washington Post Fact Checker took Obama to the woodshed when he repeated the claim a few years ago, and surely Sanders must remember. He can't be that long in the tooth."

Gottlieb said Sanders' estimate "comes from a very small telephone survey done more than 25 years ago, during the Clinton administration, and it has been discredited."

"But for some reason, this 40% claim has become something of an urban legend that too many people persist in repeating. Maybe they think that if they say it often enough, it will become the truth."

Sanders needs to to come clean, he said.

"Then, again, he's running as a democrat socialist, so we probably shouldn't hold out much hope," he said.

Gottlieb also thanked Twitter for identifying the falsehood.

"And using Bernie's bogus tweet as an example just might send a message to other people – especially his rivals on the Democratic presidential campaign trail – to be more careful, especially when talking about Second Amendment issues," he said.