What's Labor Day Without a Labor Union?

So Lurch dutifully headed off to Racine, West Virginia for a soiree with the United Mine Workers and their president, Cecil Roberts. There wasn't much mainstream media coverage for whatever reason beyond a few photo-op snaps of Lurch accepting a gift firearm. AFP and AP labeled it a rifle which shows what planet they're from. Reuters (1, 2) correctly labeled it as a shotgun, but without much detail on the story.

Cut to the Charleston (WV) Gazette for some of the colorful details that you would miss otherwise:

Kerry told the Labor Day crowd that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney favored Western coal and Texas oil over Appalachian coal.

Who knew? Actually Kerry's position on whether the USA should burn coal at all is considerably "nuanced," but I digress. Let's get to the fun stuff:

Roberts also noted how Kerry is “a hunter, and he’s not going to take your guns ’cause he loves to hunt.” He then presented Kerry with a shotgun made by UMW members in New York. Kerry held the gun over his head to cheers from the crowd.

And from the photo caption on the next page:

Kerry holds a Remington shotgun given to him by United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts

Ah yes, it looks like a Remington semi-automatic shotgun in the 1100 or 11-87 series made in the Ilion, NY factory where the workers are "represented" by the UMW Local 717.

But here's a puzzler that seemingly escaped ole Cecil. Kerry is one of the most anti-gun candidates the Democrats have ever dredged up. In particular:

In addition, Kerry currently is a co-sponsor of S. 1431, which would ban all semi-automatic shotguns, all detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifles and many other guns, calling the whole lot "assault weapons."

So ole Cecil just handed him a gift that the Lurchster would like to make illegal along with a whole list of other stuff like centerfire rifle ammunition. I know being a big bucks union president means you have to have a gift for a certain amount of er, hyperbole, but Cecil, he wants to put your dues payers out of work! You know, the ones who "voluntarily" contribute for the John Kerry banner on your home page.

And it's not as though Cecil is ignorant of the problem - he was one of the business and union leaders who wrote to Congress asking them to pass the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to prevent junk lawsuits against the firearms industry. It finally got killed after opposition Senators tacked a bunch of anti-gun amendments on it. Where was Lurch on that one?

In 2004 Kerry returned from the campaign trail for the first time that year to cast votes against gun owners and to argue against the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

So c'mon, Cecil. We know what Lurch is, but what about you?