Democratic presidential contender John Kerry on Friday accused rival Howard Dean of supporting the sale of "weapons of war" in America's streets by courting the backing of the National Rifle Association.
Kerry, a Massachusetts senator who spoke in a barn before heading out for an afternoon of pheasant hunting on an Iowa farm, criticized a decade-old Dean statement to the NRA that he opposed restrictions on the private ownership of assault weapons.
"When I go out there and hunt, I'm going out there with a 12-gauge shotgun, not an assault weapon," Kerry told reporters. "I believe in the right to hunt and be sportsmen but I don't believe we should ever have supported the sale of weapons of war in the streets of America."