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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House criticized a National Rifle Association official on Thursday for saying there was ''blood'' on President Clinton's hands because of the 1999 killing of basketball coach Ricky Birdsong and urged the group to abandon such ``sick rhetoric.''
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart attacked National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Wayne LaPierre for the remark as he urged the Republican-led Congress to repudiate the gun lobby's rhetoric and to move on long-stalled gun control legislation that includes a three-day waiting period for weapon purchases at gun shows.
``I may seem like a broken record here, but just when you think that a human being couldn't go any lower, Wayne LaPierre and the NRA found a way yesterday by saying that the blood of Ricky Birdsong is on the president's hands,'' Lockhart said.
``I have heard an awful lot in the last seven years, but that's about the worst rhetoric that I have heard,'' added Attorney General Janet Reno.
LaPierre on Wednesday made fresh charges against Clinton for not enforcing existing gun laws, blaming the president for the death of the Northwestern University basketball coach in Illinois in the summer of 1999.
On Sunday the NRA official had said he believed Clinton was ''willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda,'' stirring outrage at the White House.
``The key question here for the president is, has he looked into the eyes of Ricky Birdsong's family? Because that blood is on his hands,'' NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told ABC News on Wednesday.
Birdsong was shot to death in 1999 by Ben Smith, who had been turned away from a weapons purchase at a gun show because he had a criminal record. He later bought a gun from an unlicensed dealer and went on a rampage that left Birdsong and another man dead before Smith turned the gun on himself.
``Mr. LaPierre knows full well, because he spent most of his early adult life trying to block the Brady Law, that the state of Illinois conducts the Brady background checks and that the federal government was not made aware of the assailant's background check until six days after Mr. Birdsong had been tragically killed,'' Lockhart said.
``This kind of sick rhetoric should stop but more importantly the Republican leadership in Congress should ... stand up and publicly repudiate this and then push aside the NRA and get moving on common-sense gun legislation,'' he added.
Lockhart repeated the White House's demand that Congress find a compromise on the gun control legislation by April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 killings at Littleton, Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teen-agers killed 12 fellow students, a teacher and themselves.
The White House wants Congress to mandate a three-day waiting period for gun-show purchases, child-safety trigger locks and a ban on importing high-capacity ammunition clips through legislation approved by the U.S. Senate last year.
A less stringent version of the bill passed in the House of Representatives and Clinton said the two have yet to hammer out a compromise because of pressure from the gun lobby.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House criticized a National Rifle Association official on Thursday for saying there was ''blood'' on President Clinton's hands because of the 1999 killing of basketball coach Ricky Birdsong and urged the group to abandon such ``sick rhetoric.''
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart attacked National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Wayne LaPierre for the remark as he urged the Republican-led Congress to repudiate the gun lobby's rhetoric and to move on long-stalled gun control legislation that includes a three-day waiting period for weapon purchases at gun shows.
``I may seem like a broken record here, but just when you think that a human being couldn't go any lower, Wayne LaPierre and the NRA found a way yesterday by saying that the blood of Ricky Birdsong is on the president's hands,'' Lockhart said.
``I have heard an awful lot in the last seven years, but that's about the worst rhetoric that I have heard,'' added Attorney General Janet Reno.
LaPierre on Wednesday made fresh charges against Clinton for not enforcing existing gun laws, blaming the president for the death of the Northwestern University basketball coach in Illinois in the summer of 1999.
On Sunday the NRA official had said he believed Clinton was ''willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda,'' stirring outrage at the White House.
``The key question here for the president is, has he looked into the eyes of Ricky Birdsong's family? Because that blood is on his hands,'' NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told ABC News on Wednesday.
Birdsong was shot to death in 1999 by Ben Smith, who had been turned away from a weapons purchase at a gun show because he had a criminal record. He later bought a gun from an unlicensed dealer and went on a rampage that left Birdsong and another man dead before Smith turned the gun on himself.
``Mr. LaPierre knows full well, because he spent most of his early adult life trying to block the Brady Law, that the state of Illinois conducts the Brady background checks and that the federal government was not made aware of the assailant's background check until six days after Mr. Birdsong had been tragically killed,'' Lockhart said.
``This kind of sick rhetoric should stop but more importantly the Republican leadership in Congress should ... stand up and publicly repudiate this and then push aside the NRA and get moving on common-sense gun legislation,'' he added.
Lockhart repeated the White House's demand that Congress find a compromise on the gun control legislation by April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 killings at Littleton, Colorado's Columbine High School, where two teen-agers killed 12 fellow students, a teacher and themselves.
The White House wants Congress to mandate a three-day waiting period for gun-show purchases, child-safety trigger locks and a ban on importing high-capacity ammunition clips through legislation approved by the U.S. Senate last year.
A less stringent version of the bill passed in the House of Representatives and Clinton said the two have yet to hammer out a compromise because of pressure from the gun lobby.