PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Kerry blasts lapse of weapons ban

President Bush's focus today on the campaign trail is health care.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
WASHINGTON -- John Kerry 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 today. "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, 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 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.
Second Amendment rights
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, 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.
On health care, Bush says he stands with the doctors and Americans who are struggling to find affordable medical services. Kerry says Bush has stood idle as medical bills have skyrocketed during his presidency.
Bush campaign stops
It's health care that Bush stresses today in Muskegon, Mich., a Democratic stronghold that is the first of a three-stop bus tour through Michigan. Bush also is visiting Holland, Mich., where voters are more supportive of Republican candidates, and Battle Creek, Mich., a swing area of the state that Bush lost to Al Gore in 2000.
"He'll focus on his vision for strengthening health care, vs. John Kerry's view of putting government in charge and shifting the costs to taxpayers after the government has been put in charge," Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said Sunday.
"The president has a different view, in that he wants to strengthen the patient-doctor relationship and put more control in the hands of consumers," the spokesman said.
Bush says small businesses ought to be allowed to pool resources to buy health insurance at discounts available to large companies. He also favors expanding health saving accounts and plans to propose a tax credit to help poor families and individuals to buy health coverage. Further, he wants to ensure that each of America's poorest communities has a health center to serve the underprivileged.
Liability issue
In addition, Bush has called for a medical liability overhaul that will speed damages to those injured through malpractice and help keep insurance premiums within the reach of good doctors. He rarely misses an opportunity on the campaign trail to note that Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, earned millions as a trial attorney before turning to politics.
Kerry worked last week to turn the campaign focus to health-care issues. At a round-table discussion in Des Moines, Iowa, he cited a new report showing a double-digit increase in insurance premiums for the fourth year in a row. He also noted that monthly premiums for the part of Medicare that pays for doctor visits and most other nonhospital expenses is going up 17 percent.