He is trying to appear, on the surface, in the same place as Bush on guns.
You have to look beneath the surface, like on this comparison, to understand just how big a difference exists between the two men.
Kerry is not a stupid man. He's a pompous ass who badmouthed our fellow soldiers back in his protesting days but he's not stupid.
And one doesn't really have to look that deep, as Shooter 2.5 showed in post #45. The positions between the two are substantial on most issues.