Saturday, July 10, 2004
John Kerry on Hunting
 

"I go out with my trusty 12-gauge double-barrel, crawl around on my stomach. I track and move and decoy and play games and try to outsmart them. You know, you kind of play the wind. That's hunting," said Kerry.  (Craig Gilbert, "Bringing candidate to life," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/5/04)

 

The Truth about John Kerry’s Record for Hunters

 

§         John Kerry has the highest rating on the Humane Scorecard sponsored jointly by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Fund for Animals.  Both groups are firmly committed to ending hunting in this country. 

o       HSUS’ website says “sport hunting – the killing of wild animals as recreation – is fundamentally at odds with the values of a humane, just and caring society” (emphasis added). (www.hsus.org/ace/12035; viewed 7/5/04). 

o       Heidi Prescott, the National Director of the Fund for Animals, said in a 1995 speech that the Fund for Animals is “unalterably opposed to the killing of animals for sport” (emphasis added).  (Speech by Heidi Prescott to the 4^th Annual Governors Symposium on North America’s Hunting Heritage, August 1995)

 

§         John Kerry was endorsed by and received an “A” rating from the League of Conservation Voters. This environmental extremist group supports anti-hunters in Congress.

 

§         Kerry also has a 100% voting record with the anti-gun Brady Campaign.

 

§         John Kerry received an “F” rating from the NRA and a “0%” rating from Gun Owners of America in their most recent rankings of legislators.

o       Kerry’s campaign says he agrees with the view that there is “no personal constitutional right, under the Second Amendment, to own or use a gun”.

o       Kerry made his feelings about hunters known when he said “I don’t want to be the candidate of the NRA in this country”.

 

§         Unlike 60% of the U.S. Congress, John Kerry is not, and has never been, a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus.  The Caucus describes its membership as “open to Congressmen and Senators who are sportsmen or who support the concept of sustained use and wildlife management, even if they do not themselves take to the fields and waters to fish, hunt or trap.”

 

§         Kerry, who has missed more than 2/3 of his Senate votes this year, came back to the Senate to help kill the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.  During the debate, he voted for Senator Kennedy’s amendment to the bill which would have outlawed many center-fire rifle cartridges that hunters regularly use.

 

§         John Kerry cosponsored the Roadless Area Conservation Act in the Senate with other enemies of hunters like Barbara Boxer, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton.  The bill, if passed, would have greatly restricted access to our National Forest system by hunters, fishermen, and other recreational users.

 

Debate Oct 12th, 2004

 

KERRY:  I believe it was a failure of presidential leadership not to reauthorize the assault weapons ban. 

I am a hunter.  I‘m a gun owner.  I‘ve been a hunter since I was a kid, 12, 13 years old.  And I respect the Second Amendment and I will not tamper with the Second Amendment. 

But I‘ll tell you this.  I‘m also a former law enforcement officer.  I ran one of the largest district attorney‘s offices in America, one of the ten largest.  I put people behind bars for the rest of their life.  I‘ve broken up organized crime.  I know something about prosecuting. 

And most of the law enforcement agencies in America wanted that assault weapons ban.  They don‘t want to go into a drug bust and be facing an AK-47.   

I was hunting in Iowa last year with a sheriff from one of the counties there, and he pointed to a house in back of us, and said, “See the house over?  We just did a drug bust a week earlier, and the guy we arrested had an AK-47 lying on the bed right beside him.” 

Because of the president‘s decision today, law enforcement officers will walk into a place that will be more dangerous. Terrorists can now come into America and go to a gun show and, without even a background check, buy an assault weapon today. 

And that‘s what Osama bin Laden‘s handbook said, because we captured it in Afghanistan.  It encouraged them to do it.   

So I believe America‘s less safe. 

If Tom DeLay or someone in the House said to me, “Sorry, we don‘t have the votes,” I‘d have said, “Then we‘re going to have a fight.”   

And I‘d have taken it out to the country and I‘d have had every law enforcement officer in the country visit those congressmen.  We‘d have won what Bill Clinton won.