On Guns -- In Their Own Words, by John Taylor

Exclusive to TLE

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, without further ado, here they are ... Frick and Frack, your "choices" for President, on the "issue" of "guns"—i.e., the biological imperative to defend our lives, and the lives of those dependent on us.

All content is verbatim from the candidates' web sites.

(Please, no one bother to write me to point out the "differences". There are no substantive differences!)

If you are even remotely considering casting a vote for either of these two blanks, or if you know someone who is, please use this article as an instructional tool.

GORE ON GUNS

Agenda

"We stood up to the gun lobby, to pass the Brady Bill and ban deadly assault weapons. We didn't take a single gun away from a single hunter or sportsman - but we stopped nearly half a million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from buying guns." - Al Gore

As a member of Congress and as Vice President, Al Gore has fought to keep guns out of the hands of criminals while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. He has supported a ban on assault weapons, worked to craft a compromise that helped to enact the Brady Bill, and fought to close the gun show loophole - so that everyone who wants to buy a handgun has to prove that they are legally eligible. In addition, Gore has been a vocal advocate for keeping guns out of our schools and requiring child safety locks for all new handguns.

As President, Gore would: require every handgun buyer obtain a state-issued photo license, after passing a background check and safety test; ban so-called "junk guns" that are frequently used by criminals; and raise the minimum age of handgun ownership from 18 to 21. He would also take steps to oppose efforts to provide special protection for gun manufacturers and to loosen existing restrictions on concealed weapons.

TOUGHER LAW ENFORCEMENT

Gore believes we must:

Increase penalties for gun-related crimes.

Hire new federal, state, and local gun prosecutors to get gun criminals off the street and put them behind bars.

Require gun manufacturers and federally-licensed sellers to report gun sales to a state authority.

Oppose weakening restrictions on concealed weapons and ban concealed weapons from places of worship.

GETTING GUNS OUT OF THE HANDS OF CRIMINALS

Require every buyer of a handgun to obtain a state-issued photo license, after passing a background check and safety test.

Ban so-called "junk guns" and assault weapons.

Limit handgun purchases to one-a-month and require a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases.

Fight to close the Gun Show Loophole that exempts unlicensed gun dealers at shows from the Brady Law, allowing them to sell guns without a background check.

Oppose special legal protections for gun manufacturers.

PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM GUNS

Require child-safety locks for all new handguns.

Raise the minimum age to possess a handgun from 18 to 21.

Prohibit juveniles from possessing assault rifles and large capacity ammunition clips.

Support Gun-Free Schools, requiring states to adopt a policy of mandatory 1-year expulsion for any student who brings a gun to school.

Extend the Brady Law to violent juveniles, barring youth convicted of serious violent crimes in juvenile court from owning firearms as adults.

Source: http://www.algore.com/guns/gun_agenda1.html

BUSH ON GUNS

Vigorous enforcement of current gun laws
Enforce federal gun laws.
Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, federal gun prosecutions have dropped 46%. Governor Bush will give prosecutors the resources they need to aggressively enforce our gun laws and will provide more funding for aggressive gun law enforcement programs such as Texas Exile and Project Exile in Richmond, Virginia.

Make instant-check prosecutions a top priority.
Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, there have only been 8 prosecutions out of over 200,000 direct violations of the Brady Law. Governor Bush will give prosecutors the desperately needed resources they need to aggressively enforce our gun laws.

Background checks at gun shows and pawn shops
Expand 'instant check' system.
Governor Bush believes the instant check system is the best way to keep criminals from buying guns at gun shows and supports changing federal law to give gun show sponsors special access to the National Instant Check System to conduct checks on behalf of non-licensed vendors.

Increase the age for possession of a handgun
Increase the minimum age from 18 to 21.
Governor Bush supports raising the age from 18 to 21 to possess a handgun without parental supervision. Under current law, a person must be 21 or older to purchase a handgun.

Supports Juvenile Assault Weapons Ban
Semi-automatic assault weapons ban for juveniles.
This would extend the current limitations (subject to the current exceptions) on youth possession of handguns to semi-automatic assault weapons.

Supports child safety locks for all handguns.
Child safety locks for handguns.
Governor Bush supports voluntary efforts to equip all handguns with child safety locks. If Congress passed legislation requiring mandatory trigger locks for all new handguns, he would sign it. He is concerned, however, that such legislation not be seen as a panacea, because adults still have to be responsible for using the trigger locks and for monitoring their children's actions.

Project Childsafe.
Because congressional proposals to mandate child safety locks affect only new handguns, and not the 65 million handguns already in circulation, Governor Bush has called for Project Childsafe—a national initiative to provide federal matching funds to make child safety locks available for every single handgun in America.

Supports ban on importation of high-capacity ammunition clips.
Include imported high-capacity ammunition clips to current ban. Governor Bush supports extending the current ban on high-capacity ammunition clips to include those imported from foreign countries.

Source: http://www.georgewbush.com/issues/guns.html

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