Cool Hand Luke 22:36
member
By Eunice Moscoso
Cox New Service
Thursday, June 24, 2004
"I believe that the 2nd Amendment guarantees every American's right to own a $7000 custom Italian side by side shotgun and hunt pheasant on thier country estates"
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP
(enlarge photo)
John Kerry hunts Iowa pheasants in October.
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DAVID J PHILLIP/AP
(enlarge photo)
George W. Bush looks to the sky during a dove hunt Sept. 1, 1994, in Hockley, Texas.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Rifle Association has a new tactic for spreading the word about the Second Amendment and the presidential election: a live radio show beamed to gun owners across the country.
The message is clear: Democrat John Kerry may dress like a hunter, but he is no friend of the NRA.
The show is broadcast on SIRIUS satellite radio and on nranews.com from 2 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and repeated in the mornings. The NRA says it has more than 400,000 daily listeners.
Recent segments included a discussion of Kerry's vote to support a ban on some semiautomatic guns and another on why the Massachusetts senator is unfit to be commander in chief.
The show is one of the ways the gun issue is showing up in November's presidential race.
Both sides are gearing up for the contest and say they can make a difference in battleground states. Half of the NRA's 4 million members live in highly contested states, said the group's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre.
"It's why John Kerry is working so hard to fog this issue," he said.
LaPierre was referring to efforts by Kerry to highlight his upbringing as a hunter and fisherman. Kerry has been photographed with shotgun in hand, and shot a couple of pheasants in front of reporters in Iowa. He has talked about how much hunting and fishing contribute to the U.S. economy and said he supported the Second Amendment.
"This is a guy that every vote he's ever cast in the Senate in 25 years has been against the Second Amendment and guns," LaPierre said.
The NRA spent $17 million in the 2000 elections, much of it to elect President Bush. The group's political action committee will have at least the same amount to spend on political campaigns this year, LaPierre said.
Gun control groups see a completely different political landscape.
"It looks like there's a perfect storm shaping up in many battleground states on our side," said Blaine Rummel, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
It increasingly appears that Bush is going to let the assault weapons ban — considered a landmark law by gun control advocates — expire in September, he said.
"He's going to have to explain to voters why new Uzis and AK-47s are back on the streets," Rummel said. "No matter what demographic you're looking at, there is strong support for this legislation." which street is this?
Rummel also said state legislatures in Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin had passed laws favoring concealed handguns, despite public disapproval.
"Voters are hopping angry about a number of gun-related issues, and quite frankly, they don't cut in the NRA's favor," he said.
But Democrats have become increasingly worried about the gun issue in recent years — especially in the South and Midwest. Some blame it for Al Gore's narrow loss in the 2000 presidential election, when he was defeated in several states with a large number of gun owners, including his home state of Tennessee.
Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University, said the concern was justified.
"Kerry is a Massachusetts liberal, and his position on gun control probably gives the conservatives lots of shots at him," he said.
But others say Kerry's familiarity with firearms, as a former soldier and longtime hunter, will help him neutralize the issue.
"The voters that were going to vote for John Kerry are not going to leave him because he doesn't want assault weapons in everybody's hands," said Ed Sarpolus, vice president of EPIC-MRA, a nonpartisan Lansing, Mich.-based polling and consulting firm. "As long as you don't appear way to the left, way anti-gun . . . you're OK."
Eunice Moscoso writes for the Cox Washington Bureau. E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/politics/stories/06/24guns.html
Cox New Service
Thursday, June 24, 2004
"I believe that the 2nd Amendment guarantees every American's right to own a $7000 custom Italian side by side shotgun and hunt pheasant on thier country estates"
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP
(enlarge photo)
John Kerry hunts Iowa pheasants in October.
DAVID J PHILLIP/AP
(enlarge photo)
George W. Bush looks to the sky during a dove hunt Sept. 1, 1994, in Hockley, Texas.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Rifle Association has a new tactic for spreading the word about the Second Amendment and the presidential election: a live radio show beamed to gun owners across the country.
The message is clear: Democrat John Kerry may dress like a hunter, but he is no friend of the NRA.
The show is broadcast on SIRIUS satellite radio and on nranews.com from 2 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and repeated in the mornings. The NRA says it has more than 400,000 daily listeners.
Recent segments included a discussion of Kerry's vote to support a ban on some semiautomatic guns and another on why the Massachusetts senator is unfit to be commander in chief.
The show is one of the ways the gun issue is showing up in November's presidential race.
Both sides are gearing up for the contest and say they can make a difference in battleground states. Half of the NRA's 4 million members live in highly contested states, said the group's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre.
"It's why John Kerry is working so hard to fog this issue," he said.
LaPierre was referring to efforts by Kerry to highlight his upbringing as a hunter and fisherman. Kerry has been photographed with shotgun in hand, and shot a couple of pheasants in front of reporters in Iowa. He has talked about how much hunting and fishing contribute to the U.S. economy and said he supported the Second Amendment.
"This is a guy that every vote he's ever cast in the Senate in 25 years has been against the Second Amendment and guns," LaPierre said.
The NRA spent $17 million in the 2000 elections, much of it to elect President Bush. The group's political action committee will have at least the same amount to spend on political campaigns this year, LaPierre said.
Gun control groups see a completely different political landscape.
"It looks like there's a perfect storm shaping up in many battleground states on our side," said Blaine Rummel, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
It increasingly appears that Bush is going to let the assault weapons ban — considered a landmark law by gun control advocates — expire in September, he said.
"He's going to have to explain to voters why new Uzis and AK-47s are back on the streets," Rummel said. "No matter what demographic you're looking at, there is strong support for this legislation." which street is this?
Rummel also said state legislatures in Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin had passed laws favoring concealed handguns, despite public disapproval.
"Voters are hopping angry about a number of gun-related issues, and quite frankly, they don't cut in the NRA's favor," he said.
But Democrats have become increasingly worried about the gun issue in recent years — especially in the South and Midwest. Some blame it for Al Gore's narrow loss in the 2000 presidential election, when he was defeated in several states with a large number of gun owners, including his home state of Tennessee.
Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University, said the concern was justified.
"Kerry is a Massachusetts liberal, and his position on gun control probably gives the conservatives lots of shots at him," he said.
But others say Kerry's familiarity with firearms, as a former soldier and longtime hunter, will help him neutralize the issue.
"The voters that were going to vote for John Kerry are not going to leave him because he doesn't want assault weapons in everybody's hands," said Ed Sarpolus, vice president of EPIC-MRA, a nonpartisan Lansing, Mich.-based polling and consulting firm. "As long as you don't appear way to the left, way anti-gun . . . you're OK."
Eunice Moscoso writes for the Cox Washington Bureau. E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/politics/stories/06/24guns.html
