CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Move over, Bill Clinton. The National Rifle Association, which has made the president a personal target in its campaign for gun rights, has selected a new enemy, and it is Al Gore.
The Democratic presidential candidate was slammed again and again yesterday as a ''liar'' and a ''dangerous'' force who, NRA top brass warned members, would take away their guns.
Ridiculing last weekend's ''Million Mom March'' in Washington as a ''Misled Moms March,'' NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre accused Gore of orchestrating the march and manipulating its participants.
''Mr. Gore, you're going to find out it's not smart to lie to Mom,'' LaPierre told thousands of cheering members gathered for the annual meeting.
While Gore has been arguing that mandatory licensing and registration for gun owners would save lives, ''it's all a big, stinking, dangerous, Al Gore lie,'' LaPierre said. ''We're going to beat Al Gore because he can't lie to America's moms and get away with it.''
Gore's campaign spokesman, Chris Lehane, welcomed the attacks.
''If you can judge your character by the enemies you make, Al Gore has a very strong character,'' Lehane said. ''The NRA is opposed to common-sense gun reform, and they have George Bush in their hip holster, and they're planning on having an office in Bush's West Wing,'' Lehane added, referring to the Texas governor and presumed Republican presidential nominee.
''But Al Gore will continue to fight for America's families, and to fight against the NRA,'' Lehane said.
While NRA officials painted Gore as their number one enemy, rank-and-file members, in a festive mood, wandered among booths at a massive gun fair downstairs at the Charlotte Convention Center.
Exhibitors displayed everything from pistols to hunting rifles, along with such items as the ''Tree Lounge,'' which allows a hunter to sit comfortably in a hammock-like chair while shooting animals. The product was hawked with a video, showing a pleased hunter killing various forms of wildlife from his treetop perch.
Everything represented at the show, NRA officials said, would be endangered under a Gore White House.
''This election will determine whether or not the right to keep and bear arms will survive into the next century. It's that simple. We are at a crossroads,'' said James J. Baker, the NRA's chief lobbyist.
''It all boils down to election day. The extremists will never be satisfied, and they will use every dollar and every vote to elect Al Gore,'' Baker said.
''Today, I make you this promise: not on my watch,'' Baker said, winning a standing ovation from the crowd.
It was actor and NRA President Charlton Heston who captured the biggest applause from the members, holding up a rifle and delivering an ominous warning to Gore and other NRA opponents.
''The NRA is b-a-a-ack. All of this spells very serious trouble for a man named Gore,'' said Heston.
''I want to say those fighting words, to hear and to heed, and especially to you, Mr. Gore,'' Heston said, waving the rifle slightly. ''From my cold, dead hands.''
The comments refer to a legendary NRA slogan: ''I'll give up my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.''
The defiance at the convention comes at a time when the NRA has been on the defensive, as state, city, and Clinton administration officials seek to control gun ownership and press for mandatory safety latches on guns.
Springfield-based Smith & Wesson recently agreed, among other things, to install mandatory trigger locks, and to develop ''smart gun'' technology to make sure only authorized users could fire a gun.
The pact was made with the Department of Housing and Urban Devlopment, amid threats of potentially costly lawsuits by a group of cities.
Officially, the NRA has derided Smith & Wesson as a traitor, and opposes any mandatory rules on safe-keeping of gun and trigger locks.
But at the conference's gun and weapons exhibition, safety locks and firearms safes were prominent items. And sales of the items, the manufacturers said, are exploding - partly because of recent gun tragedies, and partly because of a suspicion that the locks may eventually become mandatory.
''With the media attention on the safety issue, and the need for keeping guns away from children, they're a necessity,'' said Cindy Boswell, who was running a booth for ''The Gunlocker,'' a small, code-operated safe made by California-based Phoenix USA. ''Also, the laws are changing.''
''I think most people who own guns are safety-minded,'' said Alan Newcomb, vice president of sales for iGun Technology Corp., a Florida-based company that makes a computerized trigger-locking system.
The device uses a special ring with a computer chip in it. When the user wears the ring and holds the gun, it unlocks the trigger electronically, Newcomb said, displaying the system.
LaPierre denounced mandatory safety rules, including background checks and licensing requirements. The Clinton administration contends that the Brady Law, which requires background checks on potential buyers, has stopped 500,000 purchases of handguns.
But a determined criminal will get the guns anyway, LaPierre said.
''When Bonnie sends Clyde to the gun shop, if he gets turned down, does he come back and say, `Well, Bonnie, I guess that means no guns for us?''' LaPierre said sarcastically. ''Stop fooling moms about licensing, Mr. Gore.''
