The anti-gun lobby wants you to surrender your freedoms in the name of security. If Americans fall for it, they will get neither, a new book warns.

"Smoke was curling over the ruins of the World Trade Center when the gun-control lobby swung into action, seizing on that tragedy to score points in the political arena," National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre and his predecessor James Jay Baker write in "Shooting Straight: Telling the Truth About Guns in America."

"Seven days after the attack," they add, "the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence issued its first press release linking terrorism and the danger of guns in the home."

Truth be told, La Pierre emphasized in an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, gun control groups and the media are putting America at risk by distorting the truth about the Second Amendment -- America's best and original homeland security.

Not only are Americans' Second Amendment rights under assault, LaPierre told us, but the new so-called "campaign finance reform" law threatens the First Amendment right to free speech, as well. The new law bars independent groups from buying ads for or against a candidate 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election.

"If the McCain-Feingold [campaign finance reform] law is allowed to stand, it will be open season on every group in America," LaPierre told NewsMax. He noted that the only way for Americans to get "the other side" from the propaganda of the left-wing media is to buy time during election contests and wade into the debate.

Bottom line: The entrenched politicians want to make sure rank and file citizens are denied the right to speak ill of them when they face the judgment of the voters. And since incumbent politicians have most of the publicity advantages, activist groups see this as a measure to keep government officials in power by silencing their citizen critics.

To LaPierre and others who want to have their say in a supposedly free and open society, this smacks of the very thing the Founding Fathers rebelled against when the United States of America was created. The NRA chief argues it calls to mind King George throwing dissenters into dungeons.

"I have no doubt this law is a first step," he said, "but this first step guts most of the First Amendment."

"The politicians can say anything they want," the "Straight shooting" co-author complained, "and the media goes right along with them." By "media," he means the giants: Disney (ABC), General Electric (NBC), Viacom (CBS), Time-Warner (CNN), and of course, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other lions of the establishment press.

Millions Spent

"They spend millions lobbying for their pet projects," he noted, "They can use their enormous influence and spend all they want to promote their favored politicians, and [under McCain-Feingold] citizens groups can't buy a thirty-second ad to talk back."

In effect, LaPierre sees this measure as handing the conglomerates the right to grant "speech licenses to pet politicians and causes."

The NRA's suit against the McCain-Feingold law is due to go to federal court on December 4. The gun-rights advocate says it is likely to be decided shortly thereafter, and will then go to the supreme Court for a probable decision by that body in October or November, 2003.

The other of the twin threats to freedom-the effort to deprive law abiding Americans the right to buy and retain guns to protect themselves-is being marketed by the left as an effort to protect America in the fight against terrorism. It does no such thing, LaPierre argues.

"There have always been societies that try to purchase security by giving up their freedom," he told NewsMax during a break from a weeklong jam-packed schedule of NRA board meetings in the Washington area this past week, "but we can't make America safer by trading the currency of American freedom."

In fact, the exact opposite would be the likely result.

Bulging Files

NRA files are bulging with instances of men and women assaulted because they were unable to protect themselves.

One such case involves a woman who told the police that her ex-boyfriend had threatened to drop by her house that night and kill her. The cops said, "Let us know when he gets there."

She did. The problem was the stalker broke through her window just as she was dialing 911. She did not have a handgun to protect herself. No way the police could get there in time.

LaPierre, in his book "Shooting Straight" and in his comments to NewsMax.com, says there are those who are cynically using 9/11 as an excuse to threaten individual privacy. He warns we cannot make ourselves more secure by creating a society in which "privacy becomes a luxury and freedom becomes suspect."

As the NRA leader sees it, "The more we distrust each other and the more government distrusts us, and the more we find our liberty is frisked, ex-rayed, finger-printed and strip-searched," the closer we are to losing both privacy and security. He cites "new optical technologies" that can pinpoint an individual by his skin, eyes, and feet.

In Great Britain, he notes, "the average citizen gets his picture taken 300 times a day." Can this level of snooping here in America be far behind?

The national NRA spokesman shoots down a number of "myths" perpetrated by the gun-controllers. Among them: