You said that if Congress would vote to extend the ban on assault weapons, that you'd sign the legislation, but you did nothing to encourage the Congress to extend it. Why not?
BUSH: Actually, I made my intentions -- made my views clear. I did think we ought to extend the assault weapons ban, and was told the fact that the bill was never going to move, because Republicans and Democrats were against the assault weapon ban, people of both parties.
I believe law-abiding citizens ought to be able to own a gun. I believe in background checks at gun shows or anywhere to make sure that guns don't get in the hands of people that shouldn't have them.
But the best way to protect our citizens from guns is to prosecute those who commit crimes with guns. And that's why early in my administration I called the attorney general and the U.S. attorneys and said: Put together a task force all around the country to prosecute those who commit crimes with guns. And the prosecutions are up by about 68 percent -- I believe -- is the number.
Neighborhoods are safer when we crack down on people who commit crimes with guns.
To me, that's the best way to secure America.
SCHIEFFER: Senator?
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.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135380,00.html
the Iowa story:
<x-tad-bigger> Kerry hits Bush for lapse of gun ban
By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published September 14, 2004
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040914-123037-7051r.htm
</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>He recalled pheasant hunting with a sheriff in Iowa recently. As they were walking through a field, the senator said, the sheriff pointed to a house nearby and said, "We did a drug bust in that house about a week ago. And we came in early in the morning. And the person that they were arresting was asleep, lying in bed. And lying right on the floor, right beside that drug dealer, was an AK-47."
</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger> earlier version of the tale:
</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>http://www.iptv.org/iowapress/transcripts/3109.cfm</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>
10-24-03
</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>YOU KNOW, IT WAS INTERESTING WHEN I WAS AT THAT PHEASANT SHOOT THIS AFTERNOON, THE SHERIFF -- I WAS WITH PAUL FITZGERALD AND WITH THE COUNTY ATTORNEY, STEVE HOLMES, AND THEY POINTED TO A HOUSE THAT WAS RIGHT LODGED IN NEAR HIS FARM THAT THEY JUST RAIDED AND SHUT DOWN. IT WAS A METHAMPHETAMINE HOUSE, A CRACK HOUSE. AND THE GUY THEY ARRESTED THERE WHEN THEY RAIDED IT HAD A LOADED AK-47 BESIDE HIS BED
</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>i'm having a hard time finding online, any meth lab bust stories in Colo, Iowa near Ryan McKinney's corn farm.
you would think the local papers might mention it
</x-tad-bigger>
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