Bennett Pressured by NRA on Gun Views, Officials Say

WASHINGTON —  The National Rifle Assn. has mounted a campaign aimed at pressuring William J. Bennett, director of the Administration’s war on drugs, into backing away from steps that could outlaw semiautomatic assault rifles, senior Administration officials charged Friday.

The officials said the NRA has directed its influential supporters outside government to warn Bennett that he should heed the clout of the powerful gun lobby if he wants to preserve his political future in the Republican Party.

Bennett earlier this week obtained a temporary ban on imports of the AK-47, Uzi carbine and other foreign-made paramilitary rifles and plans within the next two weeks to recommend to the White House whether permanent prohibitions should be enacted against all semiautomatic assault weapons.

Through a spokesman, Wayne LaPierre, chief lobbyist for the NRA, dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous.” The organization refused further comment.

The charges appear to represent a decision by the Administration to distance itself from the NRA, which counts President Bush among its lifetime members but whose opposition to curbs on assault weapons is now supported by only a minority of the electorate, polls have indicated.

However, officials making the anti-NRA remarks insisted that their names not be used, saying that neither Bennett nor the Administration wants to pick an open fight with the powerful gun lobby.

Asked about the alleged pressure tactics, Bennett said through a spokesman only that “there have been a lot of phone calls, a lot of pressure” since he called for the temporary assault-rifle ban. “Let’s cool off,” he said.

Earlier, in an interview with The Times, Bennett did not mention the NRA by name. But he rebuffed what he said were efforts by “people in some organizations probably trying to paint me as an enemy of all guns.”

If his position “makes me in some people’s eyes some kind of weak-kneed liberal,” Bennett declared, “that’s just tough.”

An Administration official said Bennett is “quite confident” the NRA had directed “third parties” to telephone him with pointed reminders about the enormous political influence the gun lobby wields in conservative circles.

The source refused to identify the callers but said that some are prominent Republicans and that one caller told Bennett he ought to pay attention to the NRA “if you want to have a political future.”

Also Friday, Bush said he thought the debate over assault rifles had gotten “pretty hot.”

But Bush, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Washington, said the Administration’s will handle the issue in “a cool way, based on facts and not swayed one way or another by the temper of the debate.”

Meanwhile, a senior official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confirmed Friday that the agency is considering widening the current ban on imported assault rifles to cover as many as 40 other semiautomatic weapons.

However, the official, Deputy Director William T. Drake, and other sources denied published reports that the agency had backed away from such action Thursday under pressure from the White House and the NRA.

Drake said the action under consideration would require importers to prove that the weapons are being used for hunting, organized target shooting and other sporting purposes, as required under existing law. That criterion does not include self-defense or so-called “plinking” at cans and bottles. He said the new requirement could come as early as Monday.

“As we come across additional firearms--whether or not they are assault weapons,” Drake said, “we will want to consider whether they have some use for sporting purposes.”

Proponents of a crackdown on the weapons have charged that they have become a prime tool of drug dealers and other criminals.

The 3-million-member NRA traditionally has been active in using much of its $54.6-million budget for political activities. It makes thousands of dollars each year in campaign contributions to those who support its agenda and spends millions of dollars in aggressive lobbying efforts against gun control legislation.

NRA spokesmen Friday declined to discuss any further steps that the gun lobby had taken in the wake of the Administration ban, but sources said the effort had included telephone calls and requests for meetings with White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials.

In the interview, Bennett indicated that his office has stepped up the pace of its review of U.S. policy on semiautomatic weapons in an effort to meet a newly imposed two-week deadline.

He made clear that he intends to address concerns about assault rifles without “going down that slippery slope of interfering with the law-abiding hunter.

“Anybody who thinks that this country should be absolutely rid of guns has no ally in Bill Bennett,” he said. “At the same time, there are too many guns out there in the wrong hands. There’s too much violence, too much death, too much carnage.”

Staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.