LTE on Kerry & Gun Vote in The Times Argus 9/16

Letter to the Editor
The Times Argus of Barre/Montpelier
September 16, 2004

Kerry’s gun stand loses him a vote

Oops! I’m afraid John Kerry just damaged his campaign irreparably by raising the gun control issue. He criticized George Bush for not interfering with the sunset of the so-called assault weapons ban.

In doing so, Kerry undoubtedly alienated many Second Amendment proponents, a large and crucial voting block, who had been wavering due to George Bush’s unsatisfactory posture on the issue. Bush has said he would sign an extension of the gun ban.

By speaking out, Kerry has unnecessarily reminded swing state voters that he has been a consistent opponent of citizen gun rights, and thus he fits right in to the widely detested stereotype of the urban elitist, big government Democratic politician.

Compounding Kerry’s blunder is that many swing voters understand the “assault weapons” ban to be a fundamentally dishonest piece of legislation, and that those politicians who support it are thus tainted with dishonesty. The banned rifles and pistols are not, in fact, assault weapons ? a propaganda term designed to confuse the public. Terrorists never use them, nor, for the most part, do ordinary criminals. Real assault weapons are machine guns, which have effectively been banned since the 1930s, the days of John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde. The newly banned “assualt weapons” are either traditional guns that hold more than 10 shells, or military look-alikes, functionally identical to ordinary hunting, recreational, and self-defense guns.

The ban, which reduced magazine capacity to 10 shells, has not demonstrably lowered crime, but reducing crime was never its real goal. The ban was intended, rather, to desensitize Americans to gun bans generally, and thus pave the way for government’s total liquidation of this characteristic American right.

Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee, and therefore the presidential election in 2000, in part, because many Tennessee voters were deeply offended by Gore’s renunciation of his previous gun rights stance. John Kerry is undoubtedly courageous and honorable, and on major issues he is saying some good things. But he is evidently not as bright as his Democratic primary opponent, Howard Dean, who had the support of the NRA, and who has been urging Democrats to take the losing issue of gun control off the table.

Andy Leader North Middlesex