Kerry Slams Bush Over Assault Weapons Ban Monday, September 13, 2004
WASHINGTON — John Kerry (search) is criticizing President Bush for letting a decade-long ban on assault weapons expire while unveiling his own $5 billion plan to fight crime.
"George Bush made a choice today," the president's Democratic challenger said in remarks prepared for a Washington audience Monday. "He chose his powerful friends in the gun lobby over the police officers and the families he promised to protect."
Republican leaders in Congress said last week they have no plans to renew the 1994 ban on 19 types of military-style assault weapons (search), even as some law enforcement officials encouraged them to keep the prohibition alive.
Kerry also faulted Bush for proposing deep cuts to the Community Oriented Policing Services (search) program, known as COPS, which the Massachusetts senator pushed to passage 10 years ago. The program provides grants to state and local agencies to hire police officers. Bush proposed cutting it from $482 million to $97 million next year.
Kerry said renewing the assault weapons ban would not interfere with the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. The Democrat was appearing with gun control activist Sarah Brady, whose husband, Jim Brady (search), was shot in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan.
"Let me be very clear. I support the Second Amendment. I've been a hunter all my life," Kerry said. "But I don't think we need to make the job of terrorists any easier."
Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said, "Senator Kerry has spent his entire 20-year career in the U.S. Senate fighting against Second Amendment rights."
Kerry was also outlining a $5 billion, 10-year anti-crime agenda, paid for by a routine extension of customs fees already included in numerous pending bills.
To cut crime, he would restore the assault weapons ban and push to:— Fund the COPS program to the full amount authorized by Congress.
— Ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies get access to the national terrorist lists, and simplify those lists.
— Increase scrutiny of purchases at gun shows.
— Enforce existing gun laws and help U.S. attorneys battle interstate gun trafficking.
— Crack down on gang violence and increase former gang members' access to jobs, job training, school and drug rehabilitation.
— Increase federal aid to local governments fighting methamphetamine and ban bulk purchasing of over-the-counter drugs used to manufacture methamphetamine.
— Hire 5,000 new community prosecutors over five years.
— Expand DNA testing and remove statue of limitations on some DNA evidence.
— Provide money for jobs and technology to improve probation and parole systems.
On Sunday, the Justice Department said the nation's crime rate last year held steady at the lowest levels since the government began surveying crime victims in 1973, the latest in a decade-long trend showing violent crime falling.