the Centrist

Autum has long been my favorite time of the year. Along with the change in colors comes the nip in the air and the preparation for the slowing slumber of winter. Hunting is a major part of my nostalgia … guns and hunting have been part of my life since I was a teen. Over the years my body has failed and I treasure the precious little hunting I am able to accomplish as the autumn of my life begins to wax. With that background it should surprise no one that I have been an avid proponent of our beloved 2nd Amendment. That amendment gives Americans the unique right to bear arms, not only for hunting, but for self defense.

The two Presidential candidates, Bush and Kerry, have strong opinions and track records on this subject. Bush has been a strong proponent of gun rights … Sen. Kerry has not. It is good to remember that Kerry is the Democratic equivilent of Strom Thurmon … as radical right as Thurmon was, Kerry is radical left … Kerry has the most liberal voting record in the Senate. According to the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) October 2004 edition of “America’s 1st Freedom” Kerry has never once cast a vote to defend the 2nd Amendment. True to the label of flip flopping, Kerry now claims to want to protect that Amendment. Before we swallow this rhetoric, we should first examine his 20 year Senate voting record. Kerry has voted for every ‘waiting period ever brought before him’ … even though waiting periods have never proven a deterrent to crime. While waiting periods do nothing to deter crime, background checks do. I have always been a proponent of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. The easiest and fastest way to do this is by checking ones criminal record. Yet, even when background checks are provided as rapidly as credit card approvals, Kerry has insisted and voted for adding unreasonable waiting periods to deter the sale of guns, not criminal ownership.

Furthermore, confounding even his most staunch supporters, in 1999, bill s 254, he voted against “increasing mandatory penalties for the illegal transfer and criminal misuse of firearms”. He also voted against hiring additional prosecutors and expanding “federal prosecution of violent, armed drug dealers” as well as six years earlier (S. 1798) “against the death penalty … even for terrorists, who murder American citizens”. So while he wishes law abiding citizens to wait inordinate amounts of time to purchase firearms … he opposes prosecution and stiff sentencing for proven lawbreakers.

In 1993 he voted to hike federal firearms license fees by 3,650% in order to discourage lawful gun sales. In February of 2000 under bill s. 625 he voted for legislation that would hold the manufacturer of firearms responsible for their use. This would have in effect bankrupt American gun manufacturers and, adding insult to injury, he voted that these manufacturers could not be protected from punitive damage by said bankruptcy. He again tried to force this scheme into law just last spring in one of the few votes he cast in 2004 Kerry returned to Washington specifically to vote (s 1805) to, amongst other things, legalize frivolous lawsuits against American firearm manufacturers. According to the same NRA source Kerry also favored outrageous fees for background checks and in 1998 (s 224) “to put you in prison up to a year and impose a $10,000 fine upon you if a juvinile crimminal steals your firearm and exhibits it in a public place.”

The NRA is especially vexed becasue Kerry tried to silence them by petitioning the Federal Election Commission to revoke their right to free speech, while simultaneously supporting anti-gun groups by supporters such as the Tides Foundation. Kerry’s wife, billion heir Tarrasa Heinz Kerry, has not disclosed her tax report and is thought by many to have donated millions illegally to the anti-Bush … anti-gun Tides Foundation.

International financier and Kerry supporter George Soros (funding many anti-Bush organizations to the tune of between 15-20 million dollars … i.e. MoveOn.org) has contributed large sums of money to the International Action Network On Small Arms (IANOSA). The IANOSA is in over 100 countries with the express goal of disarming citizens in those nations … as it did successfully in Australia. This organization is presently lobbying in the United Nations to impose a formal, binding international treaty upon America that would render all Constitutional guarantees null and void by turning America’s primary allegiance from national to global. This action was hinted at by Kerry in a recent debate when he said he would need ‘global approval’ and would fulfill Soro’s stated objective to modify: “the concept of sovereignty, because sovereignty is basically somewhat anachronistic.” So America and Bush are ‘out of step’ with Kerry, Soros and the United Nations when they wish to preserve our Constitution and specifically our 2nd Amendment Rights … well for once I agree with the French when they say … viva la American anachronism!