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Kerry criticizes Bush on gun ban

Senator John Kerry sought to make US President George W. Bush pay a political price for the expiration of a partial assault weapons ban, but other Democrats reacted warily on an issue that has hurt the party in recent elections.

"George Bush made a choice today. He chose his powerful friends in the gun lobby over the police officers and the families he promised to protect," Kerry said on Monday a few hours after the end of a decade-old ban on 19 types of military-style weapons.

Half a continent away in Oklahoma, the issue seemed different to Democratic Representative Brad Carson, a key figure in his party's drive to gain a Senate majority this fall.

"He opposes reauthorization of the assault weapons ban," said spokesman Kristopher Eisenla. "He is a champion and a supporter of gun owners' rights."

The party's divisions were on display in the House, as well. There, Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York, and others called for a new ban -- at a news conference that none of the party's top congressional leaders attended.

"It's an issue that cuts both ways," said Brendan Daly, a spokes-man for House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The lawmaker supports the ban but has not made its extension a priority.

Under her leadership, minority Democrats have worked to force eight pieces of legislation to the floor in the past two years, including one relating to electricity reliability. But because there is no caucus consensus on the weapons ban, Daly said, it is not among the eight.

Democratic strategists have worried for more than a decade over being perceived as the party of gun control, however popular the issue is in urban and suburban areas. A decade ago, some Democrats concluded that a vote on gun control legislation played a part in their loss of the House in the 1994 elections.

Five years ago, then-vice president Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate in favor of a provision requiring background checks for all firearms transactions at gun shows and pawn shops. Some Democrats felt that Gore's high-profile support for gun control played a role in his narrow defeat in the race for the White House.

Bush has long said he supports an extension. But he did nothing in public to pry one out of the Republican-controlled Congress. His re-election campaign marked the ban's expiration by issuing a detailed description of the administration's anti-crime efforts over the past four years -- and noting Bush's endorsement by the Fraternal Order of Police.

Bush believes the best way to curb gun violence is to enforce laws that are on the books, said spokesman Scott McClellan.

Kerry used an appearance a few blocks from the Capitol to say Bush had promised police officers four years ago to extend the ban, only to break his word.

"George Bush should stop hiding behind the Republicans in Con-gress," he added.

Kerry routinely tries to reassure hunters that his position on gun issues is not a threat to their avocation: "I am a gun owner. I am a hunter," he said as he was criticizing Bush.
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