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2004 Election Results
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Gun Owners Turn Out to
Defend Freedom at the Polls
by Scott L. Bach
Firearms owners turned
out in record numbers on election day to defend the Second Amendment,
providing the crucial votes necessary to keep a pro-gun President in the
White House and strengthen the pro-gun majority in Congress.
Consider the
following:
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There
was a net gain of four pro-gun seats in the U.S. Senate, and 14 of
the 18 Senate candidates endorsed by NRA won. These gains will make
it more likely that President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees will
be confirmed, and less likely that the UN’s global gun ban treaty
will be imposed upon the U.S. in the near future.
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241
of the 251 House candidates endorsed by NRA won, ensuring the
strength and continuity of an already solidly pro-gun House. New
Jersey’s pro-Second Amendment Congressmen all retained their
seats.
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Anti-gun
Senate minority leader (and chief obstructionist of pro-gun judicial
nominees) Tom Daschle was defeated by pro-gun candidate John Thune,
notwithstanding the support and endorsement of the Brady Campaign.
The significance of this victory, both real and symbolic, cannot be
overemphasized.
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President Bush won
with the largest popular vote count in U.S. history – larger even
than Ronald Reagan’s.
One message that is
clear from the election results is that firearms owners cannot be
tricked into voting for anti-gun candidates. A democratic strategy memo
intercepted earlier this year suggested that gun owners could be fooled
if anti-gun candidates paid lip service to the Second Amendment and
created gun-toting photo-ops. Senator Kerry apparently adopted this
strategy, despite his 20-year voting record that revealed him to be the
most anti-gun presidential candidate in U.S. history. His defeat sends a
signal to all anti-gun politicians that gun owners cannot be fooled, and
that the only way to get pro-gun votes is to actually become pro-gun.
Although New Jersey did
not become the swing state it was anticipated to be, the casting of more
than 1.5 million votes in New Jersey for President Bush should also send
a message to the occupiers of both the State House and the Governor’s
Mansion: The 2005 gubernatorial and legislative elections are coming,
and there are a massive number of voters working to return traditional
values to New Jersey.
Scott L. Bach is ANJRPC Executive Vice President and a Director of the
NRA
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