lead thrower.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040907/nytu290_1.html?printer=1 National Shooting Sports Foundation: Kerry Accepts Shotgun He Would Ban as 'Assault Weapon'
Tuesday September 7, 5:00 pm ET
RACINE, W.Va., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a press release regarding the Remington model 11-87 shotgun that Sen. John Kerry recently accepted:
At a Labor Day campaign rally yesterday, Sen. John Kerry accepted an ironic gift from a labor union representative. The gift, a Remington model 11-87 shotgun commonly used in hunting and recreational shooting enjoyed by millions of Americans, would be banned as an "assault weapon" under a bill that Kerry is co-sponsoring.
"The semi-automatic shotgun that Kerry accepted is one that he'd like to ban under his bill known as 'The Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003 (S. 1431).' Kerry tells union workers that he's a hunter, but the truth is he would ban their shotguns," said Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).
Keane said several sportsmen's groups have pointed out that Kerry's effort to cast himself as an avid hunter do not square with his anti-gun votes as a U.S. senator. In various photos Kerry appears unaware of proper firearms handling. The Hunting and Shooting Sports Heritage Fund is advertising in national sportsmen magazines and on the Web site,
http://www.voteyoursport.com, to illustrate these points.
Kerry was given the shotgun by Cecil Roberts of the United Mine Workers of America. The union represents workers at a Remington factory in Ilion, New York. Last year the union urged Kerry to support a bill to end frivolous lawsuits against firearms makers (S. 659). The suits threaten manufacturing jobs. However, Kerry voted against the bill.
Remington President Tommy Milner said, "Rest assured, Remington was neither aware of this presentation in advance nor in any way supportive of its intent to support Senator Kerry's candidacy. In fact, the company remains amused by ongoing photos of Senator Kerry shooting without either ear or eye protection while discharging a firearm."
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the companies and businesses that make and sell firearms, ammunition and other products for the 40 million Americans who responsibly hunt and enjoy recreational shooting. Learn more at
http://www.nssf.org. An article on the Drudge Report Web site,
http://www.drudgereport.com/dncg.htm, points out the irony of Kerry accepting the shotgun gift given the legislation that he supported.
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Source: The National Shooting Sports Foundation
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2004-09-07-gun-lieoppose_x.htm Let the gun lie die
By Wayne LaPierre
In 1994, Bill Clinton assured lawmakers that they'd be popular if they voted to ban semiautomatic firearms with certain cosmetic features. It backfired.
Gun owners went to the polls in the next election and, for the first time in 134 years, unseated the speaker of the House. President Clinton even admitted that "the fight for the 'assault weapons ban' cost 20 members their seats in Congress." For making a lie into law, they paid the price.
In 2000, Al Gore campaigned in favor of the gun ban, losing West Virginia, Arkansas and his home state of Tennessee. For supporting a lie, Gore paid the price, too.
But the lie lives on today, cloaked in confusion perpetuated by most news media, including USA TODAY, which let people believe the 1994 ban outlawed what has been described as high-powered guns that spray bullets like machine guns and are weapons of war, such as Uzis and AK-47s, flooding the streets. None of that is true.
The semiautomatics banned by the 1994 law function no differently from semiautomatics not banned by the law; they simply lost an ad hoc beauty contest. Although all semiautomatics function the same, those with certain cosmetic features became illegal, while guns without them did not. That's gun prohibition based on appearance alone.
The embarrassing dirty secret is that no government agency dares claim that the ban has produced any reduction in crime. More embarrassingly, no agency predicts benefits from renewing the ban.
That's because the banned guns are neither the choice of criminals nor more powerful than common deer rifles. They're functionally identical to guns owned by millions of hunters and shooters across America.
Yet most media, including USA TODAY, willingly abandon a professional duty to edify and clarify such a simple issue. Too many propagate the fraud, even to the point of retaining the likes of Michael Moore.
So when politicians and the media play dumb to deceive people who don't know better, gun owners register their resentment at the polls en masse. Gun owners have seen through this lie for a decade. More and more, so do members of Congress, who will represent their home districts rather than the editors of USA TODAY.
Lawmakers who care about truth will let this lie, mercifully, die.
Wayne LaPierre is executive vice president of the National Rifle Association