| 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. |
