Will the NRA be as effective against Kerry?

[MissouriTeacher]

We all know in 2000 the NRA campaigned very aggressively against Gore.

Since Kerry seems to know how to handle firearms and is not afraid to flaunt this ability in public, I'm wondering the NRA will have as easy of a time convincing its members that somehow Kerry will "take away all their guns." I know they're certainly going to campaign hard against him, but will they get it to stick?

My uncle, who is your archetypal redneck and loves to hunt, tells me that a lot of his friends did not vote for Gore for this exact reason. (My uncle, fortunately, is smarter than them and hates Bush.) Since I live in gun country I know how important this issue is to a lot people out here and in other places throughout the country.

In the small town where I teach, nearly all of my male students hunt and think I'm a weirdo because I don't. I think if rural voters see that Kerry is a gun-owner, some of the NRA tactics might be less effective.

[David Dunham]

1. The NRA is nearly out of money, I heard.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Interesting.

I would like to see some independent confirmation of that. If they are, it could be an important indicator of the larger economic malaise, since the largest number of potential member contributors are lower and middle-class.

[General Zod]

2. Gore lost West Virginia because of the gun vote

All of my friends that are hunters voted against Gore because of that one issue. I don't think the NRA will be as effective against Kerry.

[MissouriTeacher]

3. Here's a good article on the subject.

http://www.alternet.org/election04/19223/

It suggests the NRA will not be as powerful this time around.

[pstokely]

5. maybe

I heard Gore lost WV because of coal industry propaganda

[DAGDA56]

6. My sense is that the NRA is gonna sit this one out...

...they really can't attack JK on the usual talking points, and all that talk about having "an office in the West Wing" didn't really seem to amount to much. If, as another poster has pointed out, they are losing money, then Guns just won't be an issue...aside from the ones that are pointed at US soldiers and marines.

[pbg]

7. Nope.

1) Kerry did the trap-shooting photo-op thing and will continue to do so. He's not going to give them a club to beat them with.

2) The far, far, paranoid militia hard right HATES Bush because of the Patriot Act

[notbush]

8. Kerry's trap-shoot, won't do him any more for him

with the NRA than Clinton's duck hunt. Remember that??????