Saturday March 18, 2000; 1:47 PM EST

Gun Control Demagoguery Boomerangs on Clinton

According to conventional wisdom, President Clinton has Second Amendment defenders on the ropes after years of cleverly demagoging the gun control debate by politicizing tragedies like Columbine, Jonesboro and last month’s shooting death of six year-old Karla Roland.

When National Rifle Association spokesman Wayne LaPierre accused Clinton last Sunday of being “willing to accept a certain level of killing” in order to further his gun control agenda, pundits suggested LaPierre’s attack was an act of political suicide.

But if that’s true, then why is NRA membership suddenly going through the roof?

On Saturday, radio raconteur Paul Harvey reported:

“Boomerang. Everytime President Clinton takes on the National Rifle Association, it signs up more members; a million more this past year.”