Cheney Tells NRA Kerry Will Target Guns
Speech an Effort to Regain Momentum Lost in Dispute Over Assault Weapons
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 18, 2004; Page A04
Vice President Cheney worked to mend White House relations with gun activists yesterday by warning a National Rifle Association convention in Pittsburgh that Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) would roll back rights of gun makers and users.
"John Kerry's approach to the Second Amendment has been to regulate, regulate and regulate some more," Cheney said.
The NRA worked enthusiastically for President Bush in 2000, but the group disagrees with his willingness to sign an extension to the 1994 ban on military-style assault weapons, which is set to expire in September.
Some of the group's 4 million members, concerned about personal freedoms of all kinds, have also complained about the USA Patriot Act, which makes it easier for the Justice Department to spy on suspected terrorists, and oppose additional restrictions that have been imposed on air travelers since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Bush campaign is scrambling to be sure it can count on NRA muscle again this year, especially as some of the states in which hunting is most popular are also swing states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
Cheney, speaking at the group's 133rd annual meeting after returning from Asia, said Bush's executive branch "understands that the Second Amendment affirms more than a symbolic principle." Quoting selectively from past Kerry remarks about the NRA, Cheney said Bush is the only one of the two candidates who "has shown you respect, earned your vote, and appreciates your support."
Kerry has tried to learn from mistakes made in 2000 by Vice President Al Gore and has avoided playing up anti-gun positions that could alienate swing voters in states such as Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. He let reporters watch him blast pheasants in Iowa on Halloween and has stressed the importance of responsibility as a component of the right to bear arms.
"There's a testosterone threshold -- a cultural debate over manliness," said a Democratic official who refused to be identified so he could talk candidly about Kerry's strategy. The official said that because of primary opposition from Bill Bradley, Gore "ran so far to the left on guns hat he left the political center wide open to George Bush."
"Bush wisely softened his conservative edges with a commitment to extend the assault weapons ban, the most popular gun safety protection on the books," the official said.
A Kerry campaign statement responding to Cheney's speech said the senator "is a lifelong hunter, supports the Second Amendment and will defend hunting rights."
The statement asserted that Bush and Cheney were "breaking their promise to renew the assault weapons ban." The Senate voted March 2, the day of the Super Tuesday primaries, to extend the ban by 10 years, and Kerry flew back from the campaign trail to vote for the extension. The White House said it supports the concept but opposed some provisions of the Senate bill. House leaders said they do not plan to take up the measure.
Kerry also supports closing a loophole that allows people to evade background checks by buying weapons at gun shows, and would ban the ammunition known as "cop-killer bullets."
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a telephone interview that while the group has differences with Bush, most members "still consider him a friend." LaPierre said Kerry is "probably the most anti-Second Amendment candidate in the country's history," and would "go after every semi-automatic firearm in the country."
The three-day convention, which began Friday and was billed as drawing more than 50,000 people, is called "Freedom's Steel" in a reference to the iconic Pittsburgh product. The meeting, held at a convention center, has had 360 exhibitors, with 900 booths offering goods ranging from antique guns to hunting garb. A sign-up sheet for a grass-roots workshop at the annual meeting invites NRA members to "begin laying the groundwork for the 2004 elections" and warns that "anti-gunners are re-doubling their efforts to try and take back what they have lost in past years."
In 2000, a gun control group put the Bush campaign on the defensive by running an ad showing an NRA official saying that he would be "a president where we work out of their office." Now, Bush would like to restore some of that enthusiasm. LaPierre was among the officials from sporting groups who were included this month in a tour of Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex. The Bush-Cheney campaign has signed up "Sportsmen for Bush," and the group's regional and county chairmen are working to recruit leaders at every wildlife organization, shooting range and gun club in every competitive state.
The NRA estimates the nation has 80 million hunters.
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