ETAIRIE, La. - Blaming ''dark dungeons of evil on the Internet'' in part for school shootings, George W. Bush told a high school crowd yesterday that parents need to pay close attention to their children's hobbies to help curb youth violence.
Then Bush took some punches himself.
After receiving tepid applause from a diverse crowd at the Grace King High School outside New Orleans, Bush was confronted by several teenagers about his views on gay marriage, single mothers and rumors of his own drug use. And it did not take long for the Texas governor to make it clear he was irritated, by the last topic, at least.
''There's a game in politics that says, `Let's float a rumor and force somebody to talk about it.' And I'm not playing the game,'' Bush said. ''I've been investigated, they've had reporters all over my background.''
He added: ''You can draw any conclusion you want, but what you cannot draw is the conclusion that I have not brought honor and respect when given the highest office in my state.''
Bush's remark did not satisfy the questioner, 17-year-old Glenn Dyer, a high school senior who wanted to know the difference between President Clinton's parsing of the word ''is'' and Bush's refusal to say flat-out that he had never done drugs. Nor did Bush entirely please another student, 16-year-old Juan Espinoza. When he asked Bush why he opposed gay marriage, Bush replied: ''Because I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.''
''He had a thing for circumlocution,'' the high school junior said. ''He had a few good points. But overall, he just managed to avoid questions.''
The teenagers' queries, while hardly new, represent the challenge Bush faces now that he is preparing for the general election: getting out his message, as opposed to simply reacting to controversial questions, chiefly those posed by Vice President Al Gore.
Bush's message was simple: He thinks that Gore is a shameless politician.
''This guy will say anything to get elected,'' Bush said, repeating his mantra of late. With Senate majority leader Trent Lott by his side, Bush stood in front of a mural of the US Capitol in a high school classroom in Mississippi and responded to questions about Gore's contention that he is a champion of campaign finance reform.
''When Vice President Gore stands up and says all of a sudden he's a campaign funding reform advocate, after having gone to a Buddhist temple a couple of years ago, I'm not going to let that pass by,'' Bush said.
Gore, meanwhile, spent part of the day campaigning in Miami at a hospital that treats gunshot victims, where he inserted himself into the war of words between Clinton and Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the National Rifle Association, over gun control.
Gore called comments by LaPierre that Clinton was willing to ''accept a certain level of killing'' in this country to further his and Gore's political agenda ''shocking,'' and asked LaPierre to apologize for his remarks.
''I believe that Mr. LaPierre's comment reveals a kind of sickness at the very heart of the NRA,'' Gore said at the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Medical Center. ''I call upon him to apologize for those comments to the people of this country and to join the vast majority of Americans in supporting mandatory child safety trigger locks and other common sense restrictions to get guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them.''
LaPierre and Clinton traded accusations Sunday on ABC's ''This Week'' when LaPierre attributed Clinton's renewed focus on guns to his interest in getting Gore elected. ''The pollsters and consultants are telling them, scare suburban women,'' he said.
Gore shot back that LaPierre's comment was a ''sick way'' of looking at the issue of gun control. When asked about the exchange, Bush declined to ask LaPierre to apologize.
And earlier in the day, when asked what he would do about the high number of school shootings, Bush said he supported some restrictions, such as instant background checks.
''But there's a larger issue at hand, and that's for mothers and dads to pay attention to their children,'' Bush said. ''When kids get caught in these dark dungeons of evil on the Internet, somebody needs to know how to help.''
