Gun-Control Fear Tactic Bombed, Clinton Says

By RICHARD SISK
Daily News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON

Citing New York as his example, President Clinton gave labor and the
Democrats a battle plan yesterday for beating the gun lobby and taking back
Congress.

Clinton charged that “fear campaigns” by the National Rifle Association
were behind the GOP takeover of the House in 1994 and Vice President Gore’s
loss last year, but “it didn’t work at all in New York.”

Despite the Empire State’s tough licensing laws, “there’s lots of sporting
clubs” Clinton said, “and nobody’s missed a day in the woods in a hunting
season; nobody’s missed a single sports shooting event.”

“So all those fear tactics didn’t work in New York,” he said, “because
all the hunters and sportsmen could see from their own personal experience
that it was not true.”

At a farewell tribute from the AFL-CIO, Clinton dwelled at length on his
longstanding belief that the Democrats have missed the boat on the gun
issue and suffered at the polls as a consequence.

He told the labor leaders that trying to demonize gun owners would only
backfire because many of them are union members.

“The truth is, most of your people who are NRA members are good,
God-fearing Americans who wouldn’t break the law for anything on Earth,”
Clinton said, “and they get spooked by these fear campaigns.”

In Michigan and Pennsylvania last year, he said, the unions “had to fight
against a lot of your members who were NRA members, who believed that Al
Gore was going to take their guns away.”

Clinton also blamed himself for failing to make the case that tougher
gun-control laws aimed at combating crime posed no threat to sportsmen.

“I regret that I have not been more persuasive, because I came out of that
culture,” he said.

He urged the union leaders to make their case with the gun owners in their
membership this year, before the campaign rhetoric of 2002 drowns out the
message.

“You have to do it in a nonelection year,” Clinton said, “when you don’t
feel like you’re pushing a rock up a hill. And I’ll help you, if I can.
This is a big deal for America.”

NRA officials agreed that the gun issue was a major obstacle for Democrats
in their battle to take back Congress.