This story was published in Metro on Wednesday, August 28, 2002.

Before heading back to Washington this weekend, Sen. Jean Carnahan is firing off a few campaign shots. Literally.

Carnahan, D-Mo., plans to shoot skeet Friday at an event on a farm in Missouri's Bootheel. It'll be the first time that she's fired a weapon in public during her U.S. Senate campaign, although Carnahan often has mentioned that she won a sharpshooter's medal in college and once outshot her security detail.

She plans to use a 20-gauge Browning Citori shotgun that she bought earlier this year.

Her aides say that her skeet-shooting plans aren't linked to the Post-Dispatch's latest poll that showed her support declining among likely male voters in Missouri. Several of the poll participants cited gun-related issues as among the reasons they backed her Republican rival, former U.S. Rep. Jim Talent.

"This has been on her calendar for some time," said spokesman Dan Leistikow.

But coincidence or not, Carnahan's plans do point up the role guns play below the surface in Missouri politics, and the influence the issue may have in the state's U.S. Senate contest.

The Post-Dispatch's latest poll shows the two candidates neck-and-neck.

Perhaps for that reason, state Democratic Party officials say they welcome the opportunity to illustrate that Carnahan isn't a gun opponent.

"It's not like we have to invent that she's a sport shooter," said Mike Kelley, the party's executive director. "She likes to shoot guns. Jean Carnahan was shooting guns before most people in this state with hunting licenses were even alive."

Kelley then pointedly asked of Talent: "How often has he shot a gun?"

Talent campaign manager Lloyd Smith replied that his candidate has shot guns, but prefers fishing.

What's more important, Smith added, was how Talent and Carnahan differed on various gun issues.

Both candidates say they support Second Amendment rights. Carnahan also supports background checks on prospective purchasers, trigger locks and the assault-weapons ban approved by Congress in the mid-'90s.

Talent has voted against the assault-weapons ban and cast votes against some measures mandating waiting periods for gun purchasers. Smith emphasizes that Talent backs stiffer sentences for those who use firearms to commit a crime and supports instant background checks "at the point of sale."

The sharpest disagreement between Talent and Carnahan involves the 1999 measure, known as Proposition B, that would have allowed most Missourians to carry concealed weapons. Carnahan's views are in line with her late husband, then-Gov. Mel Carnahan, who led the fight against it.

Talent supports allowing people to carry concealed weapons, as long there is a provision requiring training, Smith said.

Such differences have caught the interest of the National Rifle Association, which has backed Talent's earlier bids for office, and the Million Mom March, which has endorsed Jean Carnahan.

Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said the group had yet to endorse a candidate in Missouri's Senate contest. But he added, "Jim Talent has a proven track record as a staunch defender of Second Amendment rights. Jean Carnahan has amassed a record that is less than favorable, from our viewpoint."

Jeanne Kirkton, legislative chairwoman for the local chapter of the Million Mom March, said the group agrees with Carnahan's philosophy on guns.

"Skeet-shooting is no problem with us," she said.

Carnahan has shot skeet several times in recent years, most often on her farm in Rolla, spokesman Dan Leistikow said. She took it up after she outperformed her security detail at a skeet-shooting contest several years ago at a governors' conference.

Carnahan will be shooting at the farm of Caleb Davis in Braggadocio, near Caruthersville in southern Missouri, as part of a benefit for the University of Missouri's Delta Center, which conducts agricultural research. Davis emphasized that the event is nonpartisan, and added that he expects to see some Republicans shooting skeet as well.

Reporter Jo Mannies:

E-mail: jmannies@post-dispatch.com

Phone: 314-340-8334

Published in the Metro section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Wednesday, August 28, 2002.
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