Candidates Playing It Safe on Gun Issues

[rodbarnett]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Doug Hattaway tells a cautionary tale for the candidates of 2004 from the annals of the last campaign.

Al Gore's presidential campaign spokesman was flying over the candidate's home state of Tennessee in 2000 when he overheard this complaint from a couple of men talking in business class: "The problem with Al Gore is he'll take our guns away."

I knew we were in trouble," said Hattaway. When he heard that exchange, he realized the rap against Democrats as antigun was taking hold, and not only among the stereotypical working-class Southerners drawn to the National Rifle Association.

This time around, Democrats have lunged toward the middle on gun control, avoiding edgy proposals like gun registration and gun-owner licensing and sticking with stands that almost match, at least rhetorically, those of President Bush.

<snip>

Candidates John Kerry and John Edwards, the only Democrats to miss a Senate vote on another gun issue last week, have been summoned back from campaigning to bolster the party's ranks for what is expected to be a close vote.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040301/D811KNC80.html

comment : which way will edwards and kerry vote on attaching the awb to s 1805 and will it make a difference to you?

[EstimatedProphet]

1. Personally I am against the AWB

I think it's smokescreen-I think it's trying to treat a serious disease (gun crimes) by attacking the symptoms. We need to find out why people think that it is appropriate to shoot people in this country, and when we fix that, it won't matter if people own guns or not. If we don't fix that, it won't have a serious effect on crime anyway. But, to get to your question:
The Democratic party is figuring out that gun ownership is probably the biggest wedge issue that the Republicans can muster, and the only way they can fight it is by rethinking their stance on guns, which is primarily urban-based and just doesn't play in the red states. I will support whoever is nomionated by the party as our hope of beating the unspeakable evil, but I can't and don't support the AWB, and I hope our candidates will reject it.