Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, the most liberal Democratic presidential hopeful, said that gun control is an issue that needs to be discussed but emphasized that people also need to understand and respect the cultural ties of many Americans.

"I think guns and gun control is an issue that needs to be discussed," Sanders told NPR's David Greene in an interview that aired Thursday. "Let me add to that, I think that urban America has got to respect what rural America is about, where 99 percent of the people in my state who hunt are law abiding people. It's important for people in urban America to understand that families go out together and kids go out with their parents and they hunt and they enjoy the outdoors and that is a lifestyle that should not be condemned."

The comments come in the wake of last week's deadly shootings at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., where nine congregants were killed. Some Democrats, including President Obama and two of Sanders' rivals for the 2016 nomination - former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley - have called for more gun control. While Sanders is taking on Clinton and O'Malley from the far left on many issues, he's the most conservative Democratic candidate in terms of gun control.

"If anyone thinks that gun control itself is going to solve the problem of violence in this country, you're terribly mistaken," he said. "So obviously, we need strong sensible gun control, and I will support it," but he added, "Some people think it's going to solve all of our problems, and it's not."

Sanders also said that America faces "a crisis in the capability of addressing mental health illness in this country."

"When people are hurting and are prepared to do something terrible, we need to do something immediately. We don't have that and we should have that," he added.

Sanders recently pointed out that the National Rifle Association has given him a lifetime rating of about a D-minus, largely for his support for bans on assault weapons, background checks and to make sure guns are kept away from people who shouldn't have them, The Washington Times reported. 

"So I think it is not quite correct to say that I do not have strong positions on gun control. That's something we will be talking about," he told MSNBC.