Thursday, October 21, 2004
Kerry to tote shotgun today
Hunt an act, say gun-rights foes
By Carl Weiser
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - When Sen. John Kerry goes duck hunting today in Mahoning County, Ohio, it won't be because he's craving duck l'orange for dinner.
Rather, he's hoping that Ohioans - and sportsmen everywhere - see him in orange. Beneath the issues of terrorism, Iraq and the economy, guns could be the sleeper issue of the 2004 election in Ohio and other key swing states.
No wonder the October issue of Field & Stream magazine boasts sit-down interviews with both Kerry and President Bush.
At the Kerry campaign headquarters in Warren County, talking points taped to the wall note: "Kerry believes in the Second Amendment." Ohio Democrats sent out a brochure featuring Kerry holding a shotgun titled, "John Kerry will Defend Ohio." Last week on a bus trip through southern Ohio, Kerry bought a hunting license in the Village Grocer in Buchanan and held aloft a camouflage 12-gauge shotgun given to him by local officials.
'That dog don't hunt'
But gun rights groups and Bush supporters say it's all an act and that Kerry's record shows he's anti-gun.
"That dog don't hunt," reads a brochure from the National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund. It shows a white poodle wearing a Kerry sweater.
"Clearly, he knows he needs to camouflage his past support for gun control," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "He knows that the gun issue can cost him the election in key battleground states - Ohio being principal among those battleground states."
The gun issue hurt Al Gore in many Midwestern states in 2000, including Ohio and West Virginia, said John Green of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Kerry has tried to minimize this problem by hunting and speaking out about his own guns, Green said.
"The number of people who vote on guns is small but they are very intense - many are Democrats and blue-collar workers," he said. "In a close election it could make a difference."
The Bush campaign countered Wednesday with a Sportsmen for Bush news conference. Democrat and former State Rep. Michael Verich said Kerry, if president, would restrict gun rights - or at least be inconsistent about it.
NRA officials will be in nearby Warren, Ohio, to hold their own news conference with this message for Kerry, according to a news release: "You can stage duck hunting photo-ops, but you can't hide from your 20-year anti-gun, anti-hunting record."
NRA gives him F grade
A separate Bush brochure noted that Kerry received a grade of F from the NRA and Gun Owners of America, another lobby group.
It says he supported the ban on assault weapons that expired this year, voted for mandatory trigger locks, and backed the Brady Bill, which required background checks for handgun purchases.
Bush signed a law requiring the destruction of gun background check records within 24 hours, and expanded hunting and fishing access to include 275 National Wildlife Refuges.
Kerry will hunt ducks and geese at a private farm - with, of course, a television camera recording it.
A 2001 census report found about 490,000 hunters in Ohio - more than in Florida or California or Illinois.
In the 2000 presidential race, the NRA campaigned hard in Tennessee against Al Gore, who had called for licensing of gun owners early in his campaign. Gore lost his home state and the presidential election in a close, controversial contest.
