John Kerry: Dove Lover Or Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing?

Well, it’s election season again. Time for candidates to dust off their shotguns and head to the fields.

For many legislators, it’s just another opportunity for a photo-op. It doesn’t matter how they’ve voted; it’s all about making voters think the candidate cares about what is important to them… even if the candidate really doesn’t.

Simply go to presidential candidate John Kerry’s website and you will see a prime example of this.

“John Kerry eats dove. Even better, he shoots them,” the Kerry website reads. “From behind the stalks of a Southern cornfield, he’ll watch them flutter and dart, and fire.”

To read the article posted on the Kerry website, you would think this presidential contender is the 21st Century reincarnation of John Wayne.

Kerry is the only combat veteran in the field, the article continues. He stands 6-foot-4 and “rides a Harley, plays ice hockey, snowboards, windsurfs, kitesurfs, and has such thick, aggressive hair he uses a brush with metal teeth.”

A real macho, gun nut we are led to believe.

But looking at his record over the last decade, one is hard pressed to find ANY time he has supported gun owners’ rights. Consider just some of Kerry’s most recent votes:

* Lock up your safety. On February 26 of this year, Sen. Kerry voted for an amendment that would require all handgun purchasers to pay an implicit “gun tax” by requiring them to buy a trigger lock when they purchase their handgun, irrespective of need. In addition, the amendment would create a broad and implicit cause of action against gun owners who fail to actually use the storage device to lock up their firearms. Of course, a locked gun then becomes unavailable for self-defense.

* Feinstein semi-auto ban. On March 2, Kerry voted for a Dianne Feinstein amendment that would extend the ban that was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994 — a ban which outlaws certain magazines and more than 180 types of semi-automatic firearms.

* Gun show ban. Kerry also voted on March 2 for language that would outlaw the private sale of firearms at gun shows, unless the buyer agrees to submit to a background registration check. Even worse, the amendment could effectively eliminate gun shows because every member of an organization sponsoring a gun show could be imprisoned if the organization fails to notify each and every “person who attends the special firearms event of the [Brady Law] requirements.” Thus, if the person responsible for handing out “Brady pamphlets” took a break to go to the bathroom, everyone responsible for the event could be sent to prison.

* Hunting ammo ban. Senator Kerry’s disdain for hunters was seen in March of this year when he voted for a Ted Kennedy amendment that would extend the federal ban on many types of ammunition. In the name of prohibiting so-called “cop-killer bullets,” the Kennedy ban would have included superior performance ammunition in popular hunting calibers such as the .30-06.

These are just some of the votes from this year. A trip down “memory lane” for the past ten years reveals more infringements of people’s liberties:

* Free speech restrictions. In April 2001, Kerry voted to severely curtail the ability of outside groups such as GOA to communicate the actions of incumbent politicians to members and supporters prior to an election. This Incumbent Protection legislation makes it even harder for Gun Owners to point out the unconstitutional votes that are cast by anti-gun legislators such as Kerry.

* Lautenberg gun ban. One of the most far-reaching gun bans that Kerry voted for was in September 1996 — the so-called Lautenberg Gun Ban. This ban has disarmed people for life — for offenses that include pushing, shoving or, in some cases, even yelling at a family member. The language of this lifetime gun ban is so expansive that unsuspecting parents have been disarmed for simply using legitimate corporal punishment.

* Gun Free School Zones Ban. Eighty-five percent of Americans support the right of a school principal or teacher to defend students’ lives with a firearm.  Despite this overwhelming support for preventing school massacres, Sen. Kerry voted in 1996 to ban firearms within 1,000 feet of a school.  This ban has done nothing to keep criminals from carrying guns onto school grounds, and instead, could very well make criminals out of heroes like Assistant Principal Joel Myrick of Mississippi, who used his firearm in 1997 to stop a student-killer.

* Brady gun control. Senator Kerry voted for the original Brady Bill in November 1993. This bill endangered gun buyers’ safety — forcing them to wait five days before being able to purchase a handgun from a gun store — and endangered their privacy by requiring their names to be sent to the FBI.

* Clinton-Feinstein semi-auto ban. Not surprisingly, Senator Kerry also voted for the ban on certain magazines and on scores of firearms in 1993 and 1994. This was the first time the federal government had outright banned the mere possession of certain types of firearms.

Kerry’s anti-gun record has certainly not gone unnoticed by his friends. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (formerly known as the Coalition to Ban Handguns) says on its website that Kerry “has voted with the National Coalition to Stop Gun Violence 100% of the time… [and] received an ‘F’ from the National Rifle Association and had a 0% rating with Gun Owners of America.”

Over and over again, Senator John Kerry has voted against the Second Amendment. A friend of gun owners, Kerry is not.

But hey, aren’t you glad he loves to shoot doves?