MANHATTAN (CN) - On the steps of New York City Hall, families grieving the nation's worst gun massacres demanded Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders apologize for a vote that tossed a hurdle in front of their lawsuits against manufacturers.
Hillary Clinton's campaign surrogate, however, ducked a question about her candidate's financial ties to the industry she condemned.
New York City's Public Advocate Letitia James, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter in New York, set a scathing tone for the afternoon conference.
"In New York, we often talk about 'The Tale of Two Cities,' and with guns, we have the tale of two candidates," James said, borrowing a line from Mayor Bill de Blasio's Dickensian slogan. "Bernie stands for the gun industry. Hillary stands for families and communities."
That would be news to the National Rifle Association, which has flunked both Democratic candidates for years on its annual report card.
Sanders boasts that the group most recently gave him a D-minus, actually one of his higher grades after his decades-long advocacy for assault-weapons bans. Clinton is equally pleased with her failing grade, though not proud enough to turn down donations from NRA lobbyists.
Despite this record, Sanders has largely played defense on gun control this Democratic primary for backing a bill that made it harder for families of Sandy Hook and Aurora massacre victims to sue gun manufacturers for their loss.
Passed in 2005, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act shields gun shops and manufacturers from lawsuits stemming from shooting deaths. Sanders repeatedly argued that he wanted to protect small businesses from being sued and bankrupted, if their negligence played no role in a crime.
Sanders dug into that position in an extensive interview he gave to the New York Daily News, before the tabloid blared what it called "Bernie's Sandy Hook Shame" on its front page.
When asked if crime victims should be able to sue gun manufacturers, he replied: "No, I don't."
James denounced this vote - and his five "no" votes on the Brady bill - in a blistering speech.
"Is Bernie right for protecting gun dealers and sellers from lawsuits?" she asked. "I say, 'Hell, no!'"
For James, the law gave gun manufacturers the "kind of immunity that nearly no other industry enjoys," but Politifact notes that vaccine manufacturers and online services industries enjoy similar protections.
A Connecticut Superior judge has yet to rule on whether this law will prevent the Sandy Hook victims from suing the manufacturers for selling a military-style assault weapon: the Bushmaster AR-15.
Jillian Soto, one of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit awaiting a ruling, joined the other family members in demanding an apology on behalf of her late sister Victoria, a teacher killed in the shooting.
"We deserve an apology from Sen. Sanders because we want and deserve our day in court," she said.
After Clinton called for a mea culpa, Sanders said that his opponent "might want to apologize to the families that lost their loved ones in Iraq," including thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.