Defiant NRA Leader Taunts Clinton : Politics: Gun lobby will ‘clean your clock’ in 1996, executive tells President in address to annual meeting. Gramm praises group in speech.

Far from chastened, a defiant leader of the National Rifle Assn. taunted President Clinton on Saturday, warning that the group will help “clean your clock” in the next presidential election.

Executive Vice President Wayne R. LaPierre told a cheering crowd at the NRA’s annual meeting that the nation’s largest gun-owners’ organization will rebound from weeks of battering by Clinton and other foes.

“Who do these people think we are?” LaPierre roared before 1,800 NRA members. Addressing himself directly to Clinton, he added:

“We’re the people who helped clean out Congress in 1994--and we are going to help clean your clock in 1996.”

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), praised the NRA in a speech Saturday evening for its leadership in the 1994 elections, and for sending a message to Congress to “stop the taxing, stop the spending, stop the regulating.”

Gramm, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, echoed LaPierre’s words about Clinton.

“We are still one election away from getting our money back and our freedom back and our country back and that one election is beating Bill Clinton in 1996,” he said.

Gun-control advocates have accused the NRA of promoting a climate that encouraged terrorists to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City last month.

In the past week, as the NRA prepared for its meeting, the furor escalated when former President George Bush resigned his NRA life membership to protest a fund-raising letter referring to federal law enforcement agents as “jack-booted government thugs.”

In his speech, LaPierre said “NRA patriots are being confused with Grade A terrorists.”

“Well, I’m going to put a stop to that confusion right here and now. . . . There is a difference between sound reason and sheer treason. There is a difference between acting within the law and acting above the law. And believe me, there is a difference between 3.5 million NRA members and some scattered band of paranoid hate-mongers.”

LaPierre, who had written the fund-raising letter that upset Bush, issued a qualified apology, saying he hadn’t meant to tar all federal officers, only those who are abusive. He repeated the apology Saturday. But his remarks, and those of other NRA leaders, were hardly contrite.

The NRA insists it has been the victim of a biased news media, political opponents and a misinformed public.

“Our opponents have crossed the line,” said Marion Hammer, an NRA vice president. “Never before have I witnessed such a vicious, unrelenting attack against any organization as we are seeing today against the NRA.”

There had been reports that the NRA might shake up its leadership, with the installation of hard-liners like Hammer and lobbyist Tanya K. Metaksa to top positions. Metaksa said that wouldn’t happen this year.

Dissident members who believe the organization has become too strident were unsuccessful in challenging the NRA’s board of directors. Election results for the board were announced Saturday and a majority of the winners were incumbents. Among the newcomers was rock guitarist Ted Nugent, a bowhunter and opponent of gun control.

NRA members, at least those attending the meeting, seemed largely behind the leadership team headed by LaPierre, agreeing that they have been misunderstood, unfairly labeled “gun nuts” and bruised by a far-fetched association with the Oklahoma City bombing.

“This thing down in Oklahoma City had nothing to do with guns; it had nothing to do with militia, really,” said Donald Gadbaw, a retired chemist from Kingman and NRA member for about six years.

Describing the estimated 20,000 people attending the annual gathering, Gadbaw said, “There’s a lot of good, honest American citizens who are not wild-eyed gun nuts.”

As a counterpoint, someone left stacks of mock advertisements on tables in the convention center. They show a profile of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy J. McVeigh with the familiar tag line: “I Am the NRA.”

A Time-CNN poll found that 47% of American gun owners say they are in overall agreement with the NRA, down 20% from a survey taken in December, 1989.