HUNTERS TAKE NOTE

Kerry Campaign Mistakes Your Bolt-Action for an Assault Rifle. . . “My favorite gun is the M-16 that saved my life and that of my crew in Vietnam. I don’t own one of those now, but one of my reminders of my service is a Communist Chinese assault rifle.” That’s the quote provided to Outdoor Life magazine in answer to a question about Senator John Kerry’s favorite firearm. Then, The New York Times and other mainstream news organizations went looking for answers to why the Senator would own one, after celebrated quotes elsewhere that hunters have no use for semi-auto firearms. Kerry made the assertion in calls to renew the expired federal “ban” on certain semi-auto firearms resembling military guns. The Times wrote, “Stephen P. Halbrook, a gun rights lawyer who has argued several cases before the Supreme Court, said the most common Chinese assault rifles, known as SKS clones, were not among the 19 models banned under the 1994 law. But some SKS’s have magazines holding more than 10 rounds, which violates a Massachusetts law against large-capacity weapons, Mr. Halbrook said. If the gun is fully automatic, Mr. Halbrook said, it is illegal in Massachusetts and would require a federal permit if Mr. Kerry kept it at one of his homes in Pennsylvania and Idaho.”