wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Based on an article in the New York Times on Monday, September 27, I think your blog site and your discussion today on guns err in stating that Kerry owns an assault rifle.

The article, on page A18, is titled "No Assault Rifle for Kerry, After All." Kerry Campaign spokesman ...

On paper, President Bush and Senator Kerry both favor renewing the assault weapons ban. But the legislation to extend the ban has remained stalled in Congress, and Kerry says Bush isn’t doing enough to get it passed.

Both candidates are gun-owners, and Kerry has frequently made appeals to his ...

A key difference between a Bush and Kerry administration would be their respective viewpoints on the nature of the Second Amendment.

For decades, the Justice Department held that the right to bear arms was a collective -- as in, "well regulated militia" -- right rather than an individual right. The first indication of a change in that position came in 2001. Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote a letter to the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist stating that "the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms."

Under a Kerry administration, we'd get a new Attorney General and Solicitor General, both of whom would share the traditional collective-right view of the Second Amendment. That's one very immediate change we could expect.
-EG