Kerry and MoveOn mislead on assault weapons

The expiration of the federal assault weapons ban generated some misleading and inflammatory claims by Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and MoveOn PAC, an independent liberal group running ads in support of the candidate.

A new MoveOn ad falsely implies that the expiration of the assault weapons ban would legalize machine guns. The ad shows a picture of an assault rifle, then suggests that such guns are capable of firing "up to 300 rounds per minute" - a rate which only military machine guns are capable of. As FactCheck.org pointed out, such weapons have been carefully regulated since 1934, and those regulations were unaffected by the expiration of the assault weapons ban.

The MoveOn ad also creates a rhetorical connection between the weapons and terrorism, stating that "In the hands of terrorists, [an AK-47] could kill hundreds." Kerry himself went even further on September 13 stump speech in which he attacked Bush for failing to push for renewing the assault weapons ban (though Bush has stated his support for its renewal). "[F]or the first time in 10 years," he said, "when a killer walks into a gun shop, when a terrorist goes to a gun show somewhere in America, when they want to purchase an AK-47 or some other military assault weapon, they're going to hear one word: Sure. Today, George Bush chose to make the job of terrorists easier and make the job of America's police officers harder, and that's just plain wrong."

This is the sort of technically true slur by implication that has become the gold standard for political spin. Kerry's charge that Bush "chose to make the job of terrorists easier" (our emphasis) suggests that Bush intended to do so. Moreover, the effects of the ban itself are hotly contested, with many concluding that, as it was written, the ban was largely ineffective. In particular, the Al Qaeda training manual Kerry referenced in his speech suggested terrorists could obtain similar weapons legally in the US even under the now-expired ban, something that would not have changed regardless of whether or not the legislation was renewed. But by connecting a deeply emotional concept - terrorism - to a marginally related subject - assault weapons - Kerry and MoveOn inflame and mislead