The Gun Fight: Analyzing NRA Statistics

Oct. 9 -- Faced with a public outcry over gun violence in schools, the National Rifle Association went on the attack in March 1999 against the Clinton administration, accusing it of deliberately not enforcing gun laws.

“I’ve come to believe [Bill Clinton] needs a certain level of violence in this country. He’s willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told ABCNEWS’ This Week earlier this year.

“This president has presided over a complete lack of enforcement,” he continued.

Those accusations rang true with the American public. A gallup poll taken this year found that more than 53 percent of Americans believe we need to enforce current gun laws more strictly and not pass new ones.

But an ABCNEWS investigation has found that many of the NRA’s claims are unfounded, and that in fact, numerous gun laws are being enforced.

LaPierre’s accusations became the centerpiece of the NRA campaign against President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. LaPierre said the federal government should enforce existing gun laws before passing new ones. He used the argument in his efforts to oppose the Juvenile Justice Bill that was debated in Congress last summer, but ultimately failed. The most hotly contested piece of that legislation was an amendment requiring background checks on everyone buying a gun at a gun show.

A ‘Total Lack of Prosecution?’In its effort to defeat the legislation, the NRA sent letters to its members in June of last year claiming that felons were being released back on the streets — without being prosecuted — after they failed to pass background checks.

An excerpt of that letter reads: “According to the Clinton/Gore Administration’s own numbers, the total lack of prosecution during the past five years of the Brady background checks has returned 250,000 predators to the streets, unscathed. Not one of them was federally prosecuted in three straight years. That’s both a disgrace and an outrage.”