For all the horrible positions Senator Bernie Sanders has taken through the years, about the only thing he was good on was guns. That’s right, the avowed socialist actually supported the Second Amendment. It’s shocking, but it’s true.

Of course, now that past support for the Second Amendment is being used against Bernie in the Democratic Primary.

In response, Sanders is now claiming his stance on guns has “evolved.”

Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont on Friday defended his past positions on gun control as representative of the views of his “rural” state but said his views have now changed.

“The world has changed, and my views have changed,” Mr. Sanders said at the eighth Democratic presidential debate, while also saying he was “proud” to have a D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association now.

“I come, like New Hampshire, from a very, very rural state,” he said. “In Vermont, until two years ago we had virtually no gun control legislation. … I represented that perspective.”

The thing is, his views only changed because of political expediency. He knows damn good and well that’s the only issue he’s really vulnerable on from the left. As he’s running for the nomination in a party that’s shifting more and more to the left on a wide variety of issues, that’s the only wedge his opponents are going to find.

So, they’re going after it.

Bernie’s views shifted because it’s necessary to have a shot at winning the nomination.

This from a man who his supporters like to claim isn’t a typical politician, that he’s so much more than all of that. No, Bernie is a politician just like the rest of them on the Democratic primary ballot. He’s just got positions that he held when they were only popular in his state that are now popular with the party at large. That’s all.

As a senator, he didn’t need to hold positions popular with the nation. He just needed to appease Vermont voters, and somehow, he did.

Now, he wants more.

While it wasn’t much of an issue four years ago, guns weren’t the driving force for Democrats they were then. Gun control was desirable but politically untenable for the party in national elections. No one went after Bernie’s stance on guns because it wasn’t a stance worth attacking. No good would come of it.

Now, though? Now Democrat smell blood in the Second Amendment waters and they’re moving in for the kill. The problem for Sanders is that now he has to back peddle.

So, he’s claiming he evolved on the issue, but the truth is that he’s pandering to the base just like every other Democrat vying for a shot at their name being on the ticket. He’s telling the primary voters precisely what they want to hear.

Nevermind that none of that stuff will make anyone safer. Nevermind that guns are used 2.5 million times each year to save human life and that includes so-called assault weapons. Let’s also ignore the fact that most crimes are committed with handguns and not those so-called assault weapons. That includes the majority of mass shootings, too.

No, Bernie didn’t shift because the word changed. The world is as it was.

What changed is what the Democratic voters want to hear.