Guns split the Kerry campaign
By Patrick O'Connor - The Hill
Gun-control advocates say that Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign is divided about how vocal the senator should be in calling for the assault-weapons ban to be renewed.
Kerry’s reluctance to mention the controversial issue on the campaign trail has agitated proponents of the ban, which is scheduled to expire Sept. 13.
Kerry supports the ban, and, earlier this year, he changed his campaign schedule to vote for it to be extended. But some gun-control advocates say he has not done enough.
Asked if Kerry will highlight the issue in his campaign, Blaine Rummel, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said, “There is some shiftiness,” said.
Another gun-control advocate said the campaign is divided on the matter and pointed out that Kerry does not mention gun control measures in his speeches.
The “issues” section of Kerry’s campaign website lists 15 topics, ranging from healthcare to homeland security to rural America. Gun matters are not listed.
The Kerry campaign could not be reached before press time.
The campaign is running television commercials that show Kerry hunting. It is also distributing campaign literature touting Kerry’s support of the Second Amendment.
This public-relations effort has infuriated the National Rifle Association (NRA).
“He’s not a hunter; he’s just playing one on TV,” said Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist. “The guy has voted consistently against gun owners. It’s politics at its worst.”
The ban has been debated heavily since it was enacted in 1994 by Congress at the request of then-President Bill Clinton. In 1996, the House voted to repeal the ban, and the current House GOP leadership will not move to renew the ban without consent from the White House.
Bush supports extending the ban but has not urged Congress to act.
While many Democrats have dodged the assault-weapons ban this week, Clinton has not. During his remarks at the convention Monday night, Clinton said, “As gang violence is rising and we look for terrorists in our midst, Congress and the president are also about to allow the 10-year-old ban on assault weapons to expire.
In his new book, My Life, Clinton wrote that the 1994 vote to ban assault weapons came at a high political price, costing many House Democrats their seats in Congress.
Gun-control advocates, who have consistently argued for years that gun control is a winning political issue, were somewhat exasperated by Clinton’s claims.
The NRA has seized on Clinton’s words, highlighting them in recent newspaper ads.
Clinton’s line of thinking has scared a number of congressional Democrats from the gun-control debate, Hummel said.
The 2004 Democratic primary on guns is distinctly different from the 2000 battle between former Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley (N.J.), Cox said, when both candidates made gun violence a major campaign issue.
This election cycle, Kerry and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean have attempted to reach out to voters who strongly support the Second Amendment.
“The NRA has done a very good job of convincing people after 2000 that the gun issue was harmful to the Democrats,” said Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Hoping to attract more attention to the issue, the Brady Campaign held a press conference Tuesday morning at Boston’s Old North Church.
“We have the votes in the Senate [to extend the ban],” Hamm said. Hamm is doubtful that Congress will act with only five legislative days remaining in the 108th Congress.
The bill itself is not controversial, Hamm and Hummel said, because even gun owners favor its extension. Sixty-four percent of gun-owning households and half of the NRA members polled were in favor of extending the ban, according to a recent poll conducted by the Annenberg Election Survey.
But many of the weapons included in that poll, Uzis and AK-47s among them, have been illegal since 1981, Cox said.
Bob Cusack contributed to this report.
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