The Wall Street Journal - 21.08.2019

A4| Wednesday, August 21, 2019 PWLC101112HTGKBFAM123456789OIXX THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

“the massive cost overruns” of

the F-35 program, and that he

was also concerned about the

environmental impact. He said

he would work with the com-

munity to mitigate the harm.

Mr. Sanders’s stance has

made for some unlikely de-

fenders—and opponents.

Ben Cohen, co-founder of

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and

co-chairman of Mr. Sanders’s

campaign for president, said

he aligns with Mr. Sanders on

“98 or 99% of his stuff”—but

not on the fighter jets being

put in Vermont. “I think we

agree that the thing should

not have been approved. We

agree that it should not be

funded. But now that it’s been

approved, he believes it’s OK

for them to come here. I be-

lieve it’s not,” Mr. Cohen said.

Mr. Cohen has repeatedly

protested against the planned

jets. While he still opposes

them, he is no longer actively

campaigning against them be-

cause he is focusing his time

on the Sanders campaign.

tive and two spare—are set to

replace the standard fleet of

F-16 fighter jets that was

moved off the base in April.

Dozens of activists—many

of whom said they have voted

for Mr. Sanders—said his sup-

port for the program is con-

trary to his national platforms

onarangeofrelatedissues.

Opponents of the program

criticize it as an example of

military overspending and

they worry about the environ-

mental impact of the jets’

noise on nearby citizens. Many

opponents also said the jets

could be modified to hold nu-

clear weapons, which they

worry could make the base a

target for attacks.

Lt. Clark said there are no

plans to add the hardware

necessary to make the jets sta-

tioned at the Burlington Air-

port nuclear-capable, and she

said the previous jets could

have been modified similarly

but weren’t.

Mr. Sanders said there are

legitimate questions about

Omar, but it ultimately passed

a broad resolution condemn-

ing hate in all forms, including

anti-Muslim bias.

The president also launched

another round of personal at-

tacks on Ms. Tlaib, a Palestin-

ian-American from Detroit. Is-

rael ultimately did grant her

permission to visit her grand-

mother in the West Bank, but

she declined to go, citing “op-

pressive conditions” Israel

placed on her travel as she

grew emotional during a news

conference Monday.

“All of a sudden, she starts

with tears,” Mr. Trump said

Tuesday. “Tears. And I don’t

buy it. I don’t buy it.”

Ms. Tlaib didn’t respond to

a request for comment.

Israel’s decision to block the

two congresswomen prompted

a backlash from Democrats and

Jewish groups, stoking fears in

Washington and Israel that it

could erode American biparti-

san support for Israel. Israel’s

security establishment counts

on congressional support to

maintain assistance, and Wash-

ington is set to give Israel $3.

billion this year, part of a 10-

year, $38 billion military aid

package reached under the

Obama administration.

Several Jewish organiza-

tions denounced Mr. Trump’s

remarks, pointing out that ac-

cusing Jews of “disloyalty” to

their country is a longstanding

anti-Semitic trope.

Mr. Trump and some Re-

publicans have regarded con-

troversies surrounding Mses.

Tlaib and Omar’s criticism of

Israeli treatment of Palestin-

ians as an opportunity to at-

tract Jewish votes.

Trump Criticizes Jews

Who Vote Democratic

Nicole Citro, a co-owner of

an insurance agency in South

Burlington, has always voted

for Republican candidates, but

she thinks Mr. Sanders’s ap-

proach on the F-35s is prag-

matic. “Much to the chagrin of

his progressive supporters is

that he’s always been a huge

supporter of the Vermont Na-

tional Guard,” Ms. Citro said.

Dozens of activists showed

up at a Burlington City Council

meeting last week wearing red

to show their opposition to

the program.

The council voted unani-

mously to oppose a nuclear-

weapon delivery system at the

base. Still, any decisions on

basing jets or arming them

would lie with the federal gov-

ernment.

Keane Bhatt, a spokesman

for Mr. Sanders’s Senate of-

fice, said that Mr. Sanders has

long pushed to reduce the U.S.

stockpile of nuclear weapons

and has also supported legisla-

tion that would prevent F-35s

from being nuclear-armed.

BURLINGTON, Vt.—Bernie
Sanders’s support for a plan to
base military jets in his home
state has put him at odds with
some progressives who other-
wise approve of his platforms.
The Democratic presidential
candidate has joined with Dem-
ocratic and Republican officials
in Vermont to support the plan,
which is set to start sending
F-35 jets to the Burlington In-
ternational Airport next month
and base 20 aircraft there by
the summer of 2020.
Mr. Sanders, in an interview
last week, said the jets would
provide an economic boost that
he would prefer go to Vermont,
rather than another state, and
that the purchase of the jets—
which will replace older ones
that the state’s Air National
Guard squadron used—had al-
ready been approved.
The Air Guard told Mr.
Sanders that there are “a
whole lot of jobs that are in-
volved, a whole lot of revenue
coming into the community,”
he said, “and I thought that
made sense to me.”
If the program doesn’t
come to Vermont, Mr. Sanders
said, it would be “a major
blow” that would shrink the
state’s Air National Guard. “If
they don’t have planes to fly,
there ain’t going to be too
much for them to do,” he said.
There are nearly 1,000 men
and women employed by the
Vermont Air National Guard,
according to Second Lt. Chel-
sea Clark, a spokeswoman for
the Air National Guard.
The base is located at the
Burlington Airport under a
joint-use agreement, which is
common for Air National Guard
programs. The 20 jets—18 ac-

BYELIZACOLLINS

Sanders View on Jets Irks Some Backers

Bernie Sanders said F-35 jets would provide an economic boost to his home state of Vermont.

RICK BOWMER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

place, but declined to go into

further detail and didn’t com-

ment specifically on the gun-

case tactic.

“Selling guns on Facebook is

a clear violation of our poli-

cies,” the spokeswoman said,

adding that people buying and

selling on Marketplace must

comply with all local laws.

The company’s enforcement

of its policy “will never be per-

fect, but we are always looking

for ways to improve,” she said.

Ease of access to guns has

come under renewed scrutiny

by Democratic lawmakers after

the recent shootings in Dayton,

Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, that

killed 31 people and injured

dozens more. The Democratic-

controlled House passed a bill

earlier in the year to require

universal background checks,

but it is unlikely to pass the

Republican-controlled Senate.

There is no indication that the

shooters in the recent massa-

cres acquired their guns via

Facebook.

Individuals barred by federal

and state restrictions from

owning guns have long turned

to the internet, including ex-

changes, chat forums and so-

cial-media sites, to arrange

one-on-one transactions. Face-

book Marketplace offers a

more mainstream meeting

place for buyers and sellers

looking to make such deals.

“It’s another internet plat-

form that allows prohibited

people to acquire firearms with

anonymity,” said David Chip-

man, senior policy adviser at

the Giffords Law Center to Pre-

vent Gun Violence, a gun-con-

trol group.

An analysis of “gun case”

searches on Marketplace ear-

lier this month found dozens of

overpriced cases across 10 ma-

jor cities in the U.S. The prices

were in the range of $300 to

$2,000 for products that nor-

mally retail at $20 to $50. The

analysis was conducted by Sto-

ryful, a social-media intelli-

gence agency owned by News

Corp, which also owns the

Journal.

A search for the term “gun

case” in Atlanta on Aug. 9, for

instance, resulted in three

matches within 100 miles.

Facebook’s recommendations

algorithm, which tracks prod-

ucts people click on to suggest

new ones they might like,

channeled many more “gun

case” postings, from Georgia as

well as Tennessee, Alabama,

Kentucky and Mississippi. The

search in Atlanta also resulted

in 21 of the first 24 recom-

more than 30 inquiries, includ-
ing at least one from out of
state. The seller said he found
an interested buyer in Char-
lotte, N.C., last week, but a
meeting scheduled for the
weekend fell through and he
has yet to sell the firearm.
The disguised gun postings
could raise fresh scrutiny over
Facebook’s ability to police the
growing e-commerce business,
which founder Mark Zucker-
berg hopes can boost growth as
the company’s ad-selling engine
has begun to slow. Marketplace
is a giant among online outlets
for secondhand goods, with one
in three people in the U.S. visit-
ing the site each month, ac-
cording to the company.
Facebook has confronted the
issue of gun sales before. In
2016, the company said it
would ban the private sale of
guns on its broader social-me-
dia platform following contro-
versy over users selling fire-
arms through its Groups
feature. Licensed sellerswere
allowed to keep Facebook
pages. Later that year, Face-
book launched Marketplace but
in short order issued an apol-
ogy as users started listing
guns and drugs on the site. The
company said at the time it
would update its system to re-
move such postings.
A spokeswoman for Face-
book said the social-media gi-
ant takes immediate action
against individuals caught sell-
ing guns on the Marketplace
platform and removes violating
content. She said both humans
and machine learning are used
to screen content on Market-

ContinuedfromPageOne

A seller in North Carolina shared a photo of the rifle he listed as a ‘gun case’; other postings of overpriced cases on Marketplace.

U.S. NEWS

what he called more meaning-

ful background checks after

more than 30 people were

killed in mass shootings in

Texas and Ohio this month,

the president has yielded to

pressure from the National Ri-

fle Association, conservatives

and some political advisers.

Public-opinion polling

shows strong support for re-

strictions, and Democrats have

accused him of siding with the

gun lobby against the safety of

the American people.

Mr. Trump spoke on Tues-

day with NRA CEO Wayne

LaPierre, a White House

spokesman said.

The president said on Tues-

day that his supporters are

strong believers in a constitu-

tional right to bear arms, and

that he is, too.

“You know they call it the

slippery slope, and all of a

sudden everything gets taken

away,” he said. “We’re not go-

ing to let that happen.”

“We have very, very strong

background checks right now,

but we have sort of missing

areas, and areas that don’t

complete the whole circle. And

we’re looking at different

things,” Mr. Trump said Tues-

day. He didn’t elaborate on

what areas he considers lack-

ing, talking instead about look-

ing at mental-illness issues.

Under federal law, licensed

firearms dealers must conduct

background checks of purchas-

ers to screen out convicted

criminals and others ineligible

to own firearms, but many pri-

vate transactions are exempt.

“We are not and have never

discussed universal back-

ground checks,” a White

House official said, adding the

White House is focused solely

on commercial sales, not pri-

vate ones.

The administration is trying

to balance Second Amendment

rights with responsibilities to

protect the public, including

by possibly weighing an indi-

vidual’s mental health and

propensity to commit violence,

the official said, noting that

any effort would include “due

process.”

The official said “it’s way

too premature” to say what

type of legislation could win

approval.

Mr. Trump said “meaning-

ful discussions” were under

way with Democrats but also

called the party weak on guns.

“I think they’d give up the

Second Amendment,” he said.

Democrats accused the

president of buckling and said

momentum for new gun-con-

trol measures is fading, espe-

cially with Congress in recess

until after Labor Day.

“These retreats from Presi-

dent Trump are not only disap-

pointing but also heartbreak-

ing, particularly for the families

of the victims of gun violence,”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck

Schumer (D., N.Y.) said.

The Democratic-led House

passed background-check legis-

lation this year, but those bills

haven’t been taken up by the

Republican-led Senate.

Mr. Trump called for sweep-

ing action after the 2018 Park-

land school shooting in Florida,

then backed off under pressure

from the NRA and others.

—Andrew Restuccia

and Siobhan Hughes

contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON—President
Trump backed further away
from calls for stricter back-
ground checks for gun pur-
chasers and emphasized men-
tal illness instead as a
prominent factor in mass
shootings.
“I’ve said 100 times, it’s not
the gun that pulls the trigger,
it’s the person that pulls the
trigger. These people are sick,”
Mr. Trump told reporters
Tuesday, echoing sentiments
he has expressed in the past
week, including during a polit-
ical rally in New Hampshire.
After initially pushing for

BYALEXLEARY

Trump Retreats on Background Checks

mended products in Facebook’s

“You May Also Like” section

being overpriced gun cases.

For St. Louis, 19 out of the

first 24 products recommended

by Facebook on the same day

were overpriced cases.

A gun seller in Clyde, Texas,

said in an interview over Face-

book Messenger that he had re-

ceived 70 inquiries over one

month about his Marketplace

posting of a Pelican-brand case

representing a Remington

sniper rifle. The gun case,

which retails new at roughly

$270, was listed on Market-

place at $4,500.

A Marketplace seller in Toc-

coa, Ga., in mid-August offered

an “Empty Lock Box.” It was

priced at $20 but a photo of

the box showed the logo for SIG

Sauer, a firearms manufacturer.

In a private message exchange,

the individual told the Journal

he was selling a SIG Sauer P

semiautomatic pistol.

Buying guns online is hardly

novel. One of the biggest web-

sites for listing privately

owned firearms is

Armslist.com. In theory, arms

sellers could use all sorts of

online marketplaces, including

eBay and Craigslist, though

both sites also ban gun sales.

The Journal didn’t do an

analysis of either of these two

popular secondhand market-

places, but cursory searches of

both didn’t bring up postings

of expensive gun cases similar

to those on Marketplace.

A spokesman for eBay said

the practice of listing gun cases

at inflated prices on its site, in

the place of real firearms,

“does not occur on eBay due to

our enforcement efforts.”

A spokesman for

Armslist.com said it requires all

users to obey federal and local

laws on firearm sales and that

it “prominently” provides gov-

ernment contact information

for users who spot the rare ille-

gal sale. Craigslist didn’t re-

spond to requests for comment.

Gun Sellers

Skirt Ban

On Facebook

WASHINGTON—President

Trump on Tuesday questioned

how Jewish Americans could

vote for Democratic candi-

dates, as he stepped up criti-

cism of a pair of Democratic

congresswomen who have

been critical of Israel.

“I think any Jewish people

that vote for a Democrat, I

think it shows either a total

lack of knowledge or great dis-

loyalty,” the president said in

the Oval Office during a

stream of comments about

Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.)

and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.),

the first two Muslim women

members of Congress who

were last week barred from

entering Israel.

Mr. Trump’s comments,

part of an extended effort by

Republicans to persuade Jews

that Democrats oppose their

interests, prompted immediate

criticism.

Jewish voters have long

leaned heavily Democratic. In

the 2016 presidential election,

Democrat Hillary Clinton re-

ceived 71% of the Jewish vote,

while Mr. Trump got 24%, ac-

cording to Pew Research Cen-

ter analysis of exit poll data.

In the 2018 midterms, 79% of

Jewish voters backed Demo-

crats, compared with 17% for

Republicans, according to Pew.

Mses. Omar and Tlaib have

been sharply critical of Israeli

policy and U.S. support for Is-

rael in terms that critics have

said veer into anti-Semitism.

The House this year sought to

pass a measure condemning

anti-Semitism that was seen

as an implicit rebuke to Ms.

BYALEXLEARY