Sanders said he’s sick and tired of seeing people shot down and slaughtered.
Bernie Sanders brought his campaign for the presidency to Massachusetts this weekend, speaking in Boston and Springfield. In a speech Saturday to a crowd of about 6,000 at the MassMutual Center, the U.S. senator from Vermont addressed an issue he hasn’t talked about much: gun control.
It was an enthusiastic crowd that greeted Bernie Sanders. Even he was impressed.
“Springfield, thank you! What a crowd!” Sanders said, clapping.
Sanders told his supporters his campaign is different from others -- and much bigger than himself.
“It is a grassroots campaign designed not only to elect someone to president of the United States but to build a political movement,” he said.
Sanders addressed a number of his key issues in the hour-long speech: unemployment, tuition-free public universities, and public funding for political campaigns.
“I want anybody in this room or anyplace in the America who feels strongly about public service…I want you to be able to run for office without having to beg wealthy people for campaign contributions,” he said.
Sanders also talked about something he usually only addresses when asked directly: gun control. In the past, his voting record on guns has been mixed. He voted against the Brady Bill, but he also voted for an assault weapons ban and in 2013 for universal background checks.
Referencing the mass shooting in Oregon, Sanders said he’s sick and tired of seeing people shot down and slaughtered.
“What we need to do it to is bring our people together to stop the shouting, to pass sensible gun control legislation,” he said, to a roar of applause.
Sanders’s comments spoke to Martin Jones, 46, a jazz musician from Northampton. Jones said the speech made him feel no one should doubt Sanders’s electability.
“It was inspiring and energizing,” Jones said. “And most of all, he is authentic and believable.”
Eileen Wilkinson, 70, said she was glad to hear Sanders stick up for social security and health care.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing him elected and I believe he can do it,” she said.
Sanders’s visit came two days after his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, came to the area. She held no public events in western Massachusetts, but had a fundraiser in Holyoke.
This report was originally published at New England Public Radio.