Does gun control remain loaded issue for Dems?
R. Lott Jr. and Grover Norquist For the Los Angeles Times February 9, 2004 Everyone seems to believe that Democrats have changed their minds on gun control. Out on the campaign trail, John Kerry and John Edwards and Wesley Clark talk about their boyhood hunting trips. Before the Iowa caucuses, Kerry even took time out to shoot a pheasant. The gun control organization Americans for Gun Safety calls it taking the gun issue to the political center.” The National Rifle Association’s leader, Wayne LaPierre, claims that the center of the party saw that `advocating gun control’ was a dead end for the Democrats.” And Newsweek spread the word: At least among the presidential candidates,” said an article in January, Democrats are moderating their stances” on gun control. If one reads the candidates’ public statements on the Second Amendment, they certainly seem moderate: Kerry: I believe that the Constitution, our laws and our customs protect law-abiding American citizens’ right to own firearms
