NRA's LaPierre Slams 'Phony' Anti-Gun Propaganda

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told a New York audience over the weekend that bogus research touted by the Clinton administration was responsible for much of the anti-gun propaganda that continues to swirl throughout the media today.

"Remember the claims they were putting out only five years ago," he reminded a gathering sponsored by the Sportsmen's Association for Firearms Education Inc. (SAFE).

The NRA chief explained, "The phony study that came out of Emory University by Michael Bellesiles, who wrote the book claiming that citizens back in 1812 and at the founding of our country didn't own firearms, didn't like them and didn't want to hunt."

"It was all a fraud," he said, explaining that Bellesiles was completely discredited when historians determined that he had fabricated much of his research.

LaPierre cited other phony studies, one claiming that gun owners are 43 times more likely to be shot than those who don't own guns, another stating that 13 children a day die by gun violence.

Instead, the NRA chief reported, "We have firearms accidents down to the lowest level ever in U.S. history."

LaPierre cited one incident where President Clinton personally tried to scare Americans about guns, demonstrating an almost comical naivete in the process.

After one particularly gruesome crack house shooting, LaPierre recalled that Clinton "had the gall to go on national TV and say, 'Gosh, if only crack dealers had safety locks on their guns ...'"

The NRA chief praised the Bush administration for "getting solidly behind the Second Amendment," noting, "that helps when we get into court cases."

But he lamented that outside the U.S, "free people all around the world are being disarmed."

LaPierre detailed what has happened under Great Britain's new gun control regime.

"They had a proud tradition of firearms ownership going back for centuries," he noted before explaining how British leaders first pushed for gun registration, then passed laws mandating that gun owners turn in their firearms.

"The Home Secretary said that they'd eliminated all firearms from the streets of Great Britain," LaPierre recalled.

He then displayed a recent edition of a British tabloid. The headline: "Police Fight 50 Percent Leap in Gun Crime."