The man who has cast more anti-gun votes than any other lawmaker in U.S. history has endorsed a candidate for president. On Jan. 28, Sen. Ted Kennedy formally, and to great fanfare, bestowed his political blessing on Sen. Barack Obama.

As he basked in the Kennedy family limelight, Obama proclaimed: “I don”t think there’s anybody who understands the possibilities of government more than Ted Kennedy . . . he has been on the front lines, he knows what it takes.”

The junior senator from Illinois gushed on, saying of Kennedy, “Nobody’s better than him. What’s amazing is his voice has all the power of 30, 40 years ago. He is at the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. “ To have him offer such a powerful endorsement I think will mean a lot. Obviously, there are people who are still getting familiar with me nationwide. Their vision of this day will make them give me a close look.”

I sure hope that Obama’s last comment is correct. As the old proverb goes: “When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.”

Let’s take a quick look at the shameful anti-gun record of Sen. Obama’s good friend and benefactor Ted Kennedy. Obama was still in elementary school when Kennedy proposed his “Personal Safety Firearms Act of 1973.”

Taking to the Senate floor, Kennedy claimed: “Gun control laws in the United States are woefully inadequate. In our vast society guns should have no reasonable role.” (Emphasis added.) This was Kennedy’s voice “30, 40 years ago.”

That same voice contemptuously dismissed the right that the Founding Fathers recognized and sought to protect for future generations of Americans”the right to own and possess arms for self-defense, for hunting, for simple personal enjoyment.

“For the American family in 1973, fear, apprehension, mistrust, anguish and pain are the dreaded products of our firearms history,” Kennedy claimed.

Summarizing his bill for his col-leagues, Kennedy said it would require:

“First, the registration of every civilian-owned gun in this country. Second, it will require all gun owners to pass stringent qualifying procedures to legally possess a gun and, third, it bans the domestic output of all hand-held firearms that are not designed for sporting purposes.”

Obama”recently named the most liberal senator for 2007 in the National Journal’s annual ratings”would probably characterize this all-out assault on our Second Amendment rights as exercising “the possibilities of government.”

Kennedy’s fellow senators understood differently, however, and soundly rejected his legislation on a 78-11 vote.

Undaunted, Kennedy continued to charge full steam ahead. In 1979, his constant efforts to abolish our Right to Keep and Bear Arms brought him to the attention of the Senate Ethics Committee. Obama may think “nobody’s better than” Kennedy, but the committee unanimously rebuked Kennedy for improperly using Senate stationery to write fund-raising letters for gun-ban groups that included the National Coalition to Ban Handguns.

It’s safe to say that there is not a single outrageous anti-gun position Ted Kennedy has failed to support in his long career. He has voted to ban semi-automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns. He has attempted to make it a federal crime to purchase more than two handguns in a year. He has proposed 21-day waiting periods on all gun purchases. He has made several attempts to ban centerfire hunting ammunition.

When his gun and ammunition bans failed, Sen. Kennedy fought tooth and nail to protect the gun control lobby’s schemes to bankrupt the American firearm industry. And don”t think that the gun confiscations from law-abiding citizens in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina troubled Kennedy in the least. He was one of only 16 senators to vote against the NRA-backed “Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act” that became federal law on Oct. 9, 2006. The “Not Sweet 16,” as we have labeled them, also included Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The man Obama praises as having “been on the front lines” has throughout his career been a staunch opponent of the Civilian Marksmanship Program. Why? Because, in his words, “It seems to validate the role of firearms as an acceptable and attractive part of our daily life.”

Given his comments about his grand endorser, it’s fair to say that Barack Obama would govern in the style of Ted Kennedy, appoint an attorney general who holds Ted Kennedy’s values and nominate Supreme Court justices who view the world as Ted Kennedy does. That is a frightening prospect for gun owners.