You also voted against a waiting period for purchase of a firearm.

Can you explain why you opposed these things that you now support?

I can Adam.

And let me also say that in 1988 I probably lost a race for Congress and we only have one Congress person in the whole state because in 1988 I said that we should ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in this country.

That was 30 years ago.

Furthermore, furthermore, I am very proud.

But today I have a D minus voting record for from the N.

R.

A.

And on the my administration.

It will be the American people doing gun policy not dictated by the General. 00:00:57.860 --> 00:01:4.360 But to answer your question, I come like no Hampshire from a very, very rural state in Vermont. 00:01:4.950 --> 00:01:10.170 Until the last two years ago, we had virtually no gun control legislation.

It all and I represented that perspective.

The world has changed in Vermont and in the Hampshire and all over this country.

People are sickened by the mass shootings that we have seen and the gun violence that we have seen.

The world is changing, my views have changed, and my view is right now way need universal background checks.

We end the gun show loophole way end the so called strongman provisions.

We make certain that we end the sale and distribution off assault weapons in this country way go further.

But the bottom line is I will not be intimidated by the N r.

A.

We're gonna run the gun policy that the American people want. 00:01:54.030 --> 00:02:1.000 Vice President Biden You've taken a lot of heat in this primary on these debates stages and from voters here in New Hampshire for your past positions. 00:02:1.200 --> 00:02:9.720 You've essentially asked them to look at the totality of your record and give you the benefit of the doubt to Senator Sanders deserve that same benefit of doubt on Here's the deal. 00:02:9.730 --> 00:02:13.080 The biggest mistake that Bernie made the center Sanders made.

He voted to give the gun manufacturers the only major industry in America out of a a loophole that does not allow them to be sued for the carnage.

They are created.

First thing I'll do is president's work.

To get rid of that is going to be hard.

Think of all the thousands and thousands of people who died and I might add, Burn it while you were representing your constituency on awful lot of people in that gun state and they come around.

In fact, all those folks in California, New York, Pennsylvania they're getting killed by the thousands during the same period.

I come from states.

It's a major gun, only state.

I introduced the first assault weapons ban.

I in fact got it passed.

I'm the only guy that beat the twice I was while I was pushing the Brady background bill. 00:02:59.930 --> 00:03:1.850 Check background checks. 00:03:1.860 --> 00:03:5.140 Bernie voted five times against that when he was in the house. 00:03:5.210 --> 00:03:9.250 So look, Thea, other thing, Is that what we have to be held accountable for? 00:03:9.250 --> 00:03:10.020 The things we did?

I'm the guy that set up drug courts.

I set them up.

I wrote it in the law and it never got funded.

And also on opioids.

I'm the guy who has already begun to make a down payment in the cure.

Zach, I put in $1 billion to fight opioid addiction, and last late, my time is gonna be up shortly.

Here's the deal.

Those chief executive officers, drug companies They should not be fine.

They should go to jail.

Senator Warren would like to go plans.

I want to ask you this much to you.

Laws could do so much if you could change one thing about America's gun culture, What would it be?

Way Have a gun violence problem in America?

It is about the mass shootings that we hear about in our schools and frighten us about it in theaters and in churches. 00:03:57.220 --> 00:04:4.480 It's also, though, about shootings that occur on sidewalks and in playgrounds, often in communities of color. 00:04:4.480 --> 00:04:7.820 That air hit hardest, but they're no headlines over those. 00:04:8.020 --> 00:04:12.920 It's also about suicide and the increased leaf ality of suicide.

Because of the availability of guns, it is also about the increased chances that it's usually a woman will die of domestic violence if she is with a violent man and guns in the home.

We need to think of this problem not as one and done or three things and done.

We need to think of it just like we did on auto safety.

We just keep coming back.

We treat it like the public health emergency that it is.

But the question we should be asking ourselves is when America across this country, including gun owners, agree in certain basic things.

Universal background checks get assault weapons off the streets. 00:04:55.200 --> 00:05:0.020 Why can we not even get a vote in the United States Senate? 00:05:0.110 --> 00:05:3.150 And the answer is 9%. 00:05:3.240 --> 00:05:3.830 Think about this. 00:05:3.830 --> 00:05:7.190 More than 90% of Americans agree on this. 00:05:7.200 --> 00:05:13.350 We can't get about the United States Senate because it is the gun industry that continues to call the shots.

Until we attacked the corruption in Washington, the influence of money on campaigns and lobbying, we're not going to be able to meet our promises and one more until we agree that we're willing to roll back the filibuster.

The gun industry is going to continue to have a veto, and we will never make the changes we make.

We have to be willing to build a future that works not for a done industry, but that works for the rest of American protects our Children.

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here.

Thanks for checking on ABC News YouTube channel.

If you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel.

And don't forget to download the ABC News after breaking news alerts.

Thanks for watching.