Kerry to return to Senate for assault weapons ban vote

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.thehill.com/news/030204/gun.aspx

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will rush back to Washington today to support gun control legislation in what is shaping up as a crucial showdown vote.

It was not clear whether Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), Kerry’s sole remaining major challenger for the party’s nomination, would also forgo campaigning on Super Tuesday to cast his votes as well.

Second Amendment rights in general and gun control in particular have not played a large role in the Democratic primaries.

But the expected razor-thin margins on twin amendments to preserve an assault weapons ban and to close a so-called gun show loophole could play a role in Super Tuesday’s results.

[Alex146]

1. Edwards had better vote

if he doesn't he will lose what support I had for him.

[MendedFence]

2. What a wonderful idea

Perhaps we can get him to attach a gun registration rider on it so we can keep track of all the yahoos packing guns.

[waldenx]

3. he shows up to vote against liberty

and misses the vote to help people out of work.
What a fucking sleaze.

[MasonJar]

4. You consider a vote to keep assault weapons out of the public's

hands and the closing of the gun show loophole as an attack on liberty? Whose? Certainly not the poor victims like the children mowed down in the school yard in California. Not the probably dead family in Alabama murdered by a relative. Etc.

[DavidMS]

5. Guns =/ Crime

Despite a constant increase in the national firearms stock firearm accadent rates have historicaly gone down and rates of violent crime fluxuate based primarly on economic conditions and the war on some drugs.

I realy don't want to make the political right any more engaged this election cycle.

I will let the right fondle their toys all they want if thats keeps them home on election day.

[alarimer]

6. I agree

I don't believe anyone needs to own assault weapons (although the problem is defining what this means exactly) and closing the gun show loophole is a very good idea. I can't understand why reasonable people can't agree that gun registration is a very good idea. Instant background checks (after all felons are not supposed to own weapons)are not a bad ideas either. I am tired of the NRA, really tired. I am also tired of gun fanatics of all political persuasions. The Republican party is held hostage by the antiabortion fanatics. Deomcrats are held hostage by the gun nuts.

Having said that, though, none of these measures will stop all criminals from acquiring guns but if it stops a few Columbine-type incidents, then it is worth it. Personally, I will not have guns anywhere near where I live (I used to have a neighbor who would take random potshots out his door. Never hit anything as far as I know but it was still disturbing. Now he is gone, hopefully in jail where he belongs).

[DoNotRefill]

16. ROTFLMAO!!!!!!

"I can't understand why reasonable people can't agree that gun registration is a very good idea."

Have you been ASLEEP since 2000?

[NickB79]

7. Define those terms please

Assault weapons. What makes a gun an assault rifle? Under California statues, one of my semi-automatic rifles I use for squirrel and rabbit hunting could be classified as an assault weapon. No one can seem to define what makes an assault rifle. And the features currently banned by the 1994 AWB are laughable. How does having a flash hider, pistol grip or bayonet lug make a gun more deadly? How many bayonettings have you read of?

Gun show loophole. All major dealers selling guns at a gunshow must have a valid federal firearms license, and MUST do background checks, even from gunshows. You wouldn't believe how many cellphones you see at a gunshow, all the dealers calling in the background checks to the BATF. What loophole? Theoretically, an individual could go to the gun show to sell a few guns you no longer want or need, but then you'd have to rent a table and pay an insurance fee for use of the building. It would be much cheaper, and just as legal, to advertise them in the local classifieds. Furthermore, very few gunshows even allow non-dealers to rent tables anymore due to liability concerns. You can rent a table and sell as many books, camo clothes, or military collectables, but not guns without a license at most shows now. Plus, if you sell more than ~20 guns per year without a federal license, you become a defacto gun dealer and will then be subject to prosecution.

Despite all the flashy full-auto weapons you see gangs using in movies on TV, the VAST majority of gun-related crimes are committed with simple, cheaply made handguns and sawed-off shotguns, purchased illegally on the street rather than in gun shows. The 1994 AWB does absolutely nothing to address these.

[billbuckhead]

8. Guns are one reason Kerry's still racing and Dean's behind pit wall

Those 8 NRA endorsements didn't get Dean to the big dance.

[NickB79]

10. Are you joking?

Gore's vilification by the NRA as a gun grabber was what lost him his own home state in 2000. Endorsing gun control has hardly been a winning issue for Democrats.

[JI7]

11. it has for Clinton who won many southern states

gore lost for many reasons such as distancing himself from clinton. well, gore didn't really lose, but hecould have done better if he had allowed clinton to campaign with him.

[billbuckhead]

14. Gore was defeated by fundies in the south, not gunners

90% of evangelicals voted for Bush. It's been said over and over again that religion was the best predictor of someones vote in the last election. The gun crowd always tries to piggyback on Ralph Reeds victories, taking "credit" for something they didn't do. One thing for sure, Mr 8NRA "A's" Howard Dean is out. It seems the gun crowd either didn't vote for him or they aren't really that powerful. Either way, Dems catering to the gun crowd is a fools errand as the failed Dean campaign has so dramatically proved.

[Columbia]

15. The future as told by Bill Clinton

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/04/27/clinton.crime/

"Clinton said that a lot of Democrats lost their congressional seats in 1994 because they voted for the Brady Bill and assault weapons ban. Those losses resulted in the Republicans gaining control of Congress."

[DoNotRefill]

18. That's a hardly plausible scenario...

"It seems the gun crowd either didn't vote for him or they aren't really that powerful."

Could it be that the pro-gunners are not the kind of people who vote in primaries?

I don't thing the Dems need to CATER to the pro-gun crowd. I just think we need to stop poking them with sharp, pointy sticks.

[JI7]

9. did they do this on purpose ?

did the republicans set the date for this vote on super tuesday on purpose ?

[bluedog]

12. GOP Plans Votes to Put Democrats on the Spot

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20867-2004Mar1?language=printer

yes I would say it was all planned.expect anything from this GOP party of lying.chickenhawks...




Republicans plan to use Congress to pull Sen. John F. Kerry and vulnerable Democrats into the cultural wars over gay rights, abortion and guns, envisioning a series of debates and votes that will highlight the candidates' positions on divisive issues, according to congressional aides and GOP officials.



The strategy will be on full display today, as Kerry (Mass.) and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), the leading Democratic presidential candidates, plan to interrupt their Super Tuesday campaigning to fly to Washington for half a dozen votes on gun legislation, including liability protections for gun manufacturers. Both men oppose the liability bill, placing them in their party's majority even though some prominent Democrats -- including Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) -- support the bill.

[derby378]

13. What's important right now...

...is that Kerry doesn't start presenting himself as a gun-grabber. If he does, he can kiss Southern and Southwestern electoral votes goodbye in November.

I used to own an "assault weapon," too. I know a lot of Democrats strongly support extending the ban, but we've just been through a tumultuous primary where the Dems have had to take a hard look at what they stand for and how they can chase Bush out of the White House. If you want to crack Bush's strongholds in the southern half of America, something's got to give.

[DoNotRefill]

17. The sheer stupidity is mind-boggling....

Even the Big Dog said that the AW ban cost us seats in Congress during one of his SOTU addresses.

The voter's dislike of gun control PUT THE PUKES IN POWER.

There are so many things in our inventory that we can use to beat the Pukes. Why do we keep falling back on things that have FAILED MISERABLY?

"Let's do something guaranteed to energize the Pukes, to make sure they turn out in record numbers to send us down in ignominious defeat!!! Yeah, that's the ticket!"
Stupid, stupid, stupid....