The Bush press department calls Gore a liar every chance it gets, even sending out a weekly "Gore Report" on the vice president's "adventures with the truth." Gore and his folks do, indeed, have a number of misadventures when it comes to truth telling. But the Bushies, led by the governor himself, are modest about their ability to prevaricate. That "little birdie" whispering various untruths about guns into Bush's ear has been an awfully busy little creature as of late.

Indeed, it should hardly be worth going into the many ways in which Bush lands squarely on the side of the National Rifle Association on the issue of gun laws. Whether you agree with him or not, that's where he is, that's where he's been and no doubt that's where he will continue to be. Voters will have a clear choice between Gore, a candidate who supports gun laws written by Sarah Brady, and Bush, who stands with NRA president Charlton Heston.

In fact, as has been widely reported, NRA first vice president Kayne Robinson told an audience of NRA members earlier this year, "If we win, we'll have a president ... where we work out of their office."

If you believe in the world according to Robinson -- that there are already more than enough gun laws; that the Clinton administration needs to enforce the laws already on the books; that this is all just a slippery slope leading to the government banning guns outright -- then Bush is your man. If you think that society will become safer if there are more people carrying concealed handguns, then Bush is the clear choice.

"He's been open-minded, he's been willing to talk to the NRA and the TSRA representatives in Austin over firearms issues since he's been governor," says Talbot. "He has not been against our issues," says Talbot. "He was very supportive of the concealed carry law" that passed in 1995.

Intriguingly, Talbot is sensitive to anyone portraying Bush as a friend of the NRA and TSRA. "I don't want to paint Gov. Bush as being in the NRA's pocket or TSRA's pocket -- that's not true at all. He's not. I think he's a fair man. He's not an extremist." Asked if he can name a time when Bush disagreed or worked against the NRA or TSRA, Talbot says, "I can't think of any in recent time." But, he reiterates, "I don't want to paint Gov. Bush into a corner that doesn't give him any way out."

Talbot isn't the only one so sensitive to this issue. The person most reluctant to link Bush directly to the NRA agenda is Bush himself, trying instead to paint himself as a moderate on gun control.

On Friday, right before the Million Mom March in favor of more gun laws, Bush came out in favor of giving away thousands of trigger locks for anyone who wants one, an apparatus he has pooh-pooohed in the past. He also did and said absolutely nothing last year when two pieces of state legislation -- both requiring that guns be sold with trigger locks -- were introduced.

"That's a huge change for him," says Sudbay. "It seems to be a very crass political move timed in conjunction with the Million Mom March and also to diminish his very pro-gun record."

"I think he saw himself being pushed out on one of the wings when he got embroiled with [Sen. John] McCain and he saw that his best way to regain support was to shift back to the center," says TSRA's Talbot.

Why would Bush try to gloss over his previous strong support for the NRA's agenda? Obviously for votes. One of the few polls taken in the last few months that had Gore leading was conducted by ABC News immediately after Robinson's comments, showing Gore with an edge, 46 percent to 38 percent. Clearly, Bush is worried, otherwise he wouldn't have had his handlers rush to book him on NBC's "Today" show to announce his new free-trigger-lock entitlement program for gun owners.

And Bush's feigned moderation on the issue appears to be working. A New York Times poll published Tuesday showed Bush and Gore statistically tied on who those polled agree with regarding gun control, though Americans consistently and overwhelmingly support gun laws that Bush opposes. But Bush's political maneuvering has led to some of his own adventures with the truth.

Notified that President Clinton would be talking about gun violence on "Good Morning America" last Friday, Bush quickly scheduled an appearance on "Today" where, in reference to the Million Mom March, he said, "Like them, I'm concerned about gun violence in our society."

Bush then announced that he was going to spend $1 million a year in Texas to give away trigger locks, and that he would, as president, preside over a five-year $325 million "Project ChildSafe" that would make safety locks available for each of the estimated 65 million handguns in the United States.

"This is a proactive approach that will help many parents make their homes safer," Bush said, which makes one wonder why he didn't propose it in any of his previous six years as governor. Or why he thinks trigger locks should still be "voluntary." According to Republican pollster Linda DiVall, an April poll of voters indicated that approximately 66 percent support the mandatory use of trigger locks on handguns. In March, New York Gov. George Pataki proposed mandatory trigger locks in his state. If trigger locks on guns will "make their homes safer," why not make it mandatory to use them?

"His trigger-lock giveaway certainly can be contrasted with his comments on the issue during the L.A. Times/CNN debate, when he was telling people to fear the 'trigger-lock police,'" notes Sudbay. On March 2, during the last GOP presidential debate, Bush said that he didn't "mind trigger locks being sold ... but the question is, How do we enforce it? Are we going to have trigger-lock police knock on people's doors saying, 'Show me your lock?'"

"The trigger-lock issue, I've got no problem with it," says TSRA's Talbot. "I guess what we're concerned about, firearms owners, is not the trigger-lock issue, it's what comes beyond the trigger lock, it's the trigger-lock police."

So even when Bush is attempting to seem moderate on the gun issue, he still diverges not at all from the gun lobby's positions.

The fact that Bush would ape NRA rhetoric about "trigger-lock police" is no surprise, Sudbay says. And he wonders about the efficacy of Bush's new trigger-lock program. "I haven't seen any specifics about it, and the devil is sometimes in the details," he says.

In 1995, for instance, Bush signed a "child access prevention," or CAP, law making parents responsible for keeping loaded guns safely away from their kids. "But when you read it," Sudbay says, "you see the specific provision in the law saying schools should start gun-safety programs modeled on the NRA program 'Eddie the Eagle.'"

Sudbay notes that the "Eddie the Eagle" program has been criticized as "basically an indoctrination program for kids and guns. It claims to be about gun safety but basically it's a marketing program for kids and guns. Also, it puts all the responsibility on the kids and doesn't put any responsibility on the adults."

Bush is fond of telling reporters to check his record. Fair enough. Bush has one of the most pro-NRA records of any governor in the nation. He has understandably been trying to gloss over that fact, but it's indisputable.

Instead, his campaign offers bogus attempts to seem moderate on the issue. His gun policy, outlined on his Web site, reads like a list of NRA-approved talking points.

For example, Bush's spokespeople are quick to point out that Bush's gun platform breaks from the NRA by supporting "banning juveniles from possession of semi-automatic 'assault' weapons, ... increasing the minimum age for possession of a handgun from 18 to 21 ... [and] banning the importation of foreign made, 'high-capacity' ammunition clips."

"It appears to me that what George W. Bush's people have done is to take a look at the federal law and say that we'll just apply these across the board to juveniles," says Talbot. "But these [three] laws are already on the books, and I think Gov. Bush realizes that; he's a pretty astute man."

Even so, Bush's commitment to passing these laws seems tenuous. Bush has never taken one step in Texas to get any of these three passed as law. Texas, in fact, is one of the only states in the nation with no minimum age for handgun possession.

Bush was a little more active when it came to working with the NRA. In 1995, Bush supported a carrying-a-concealed-weapon (CCW) law, which allows Texans to carry loaded guns with them at all times as long as they have a license.

"It will make Texas a safer place," Bush said at the time. "I wouldn't be signing this if I thought it made Texas a more dangerous place. I don't think it does."

According to a 1999 study by the Violence Policy Center, however, since Bush's CCW law took effect, an average of two Texas CCW licensees have been arrested every day.

Bush's "safer" Texas now included individuals allowed to carry loaded, concealed weapons who were arrested for, as of March 1999, 15 charges of murder or attempted murder, six charges of kidnapping or false imprisonment, 28 charges of rape or sexual assault, 103 charges of assault or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, 442 charges of DWI, 30 charges of indecency with children and 70 charges of sexual misconduct.

Interestingly, even though Bush's priority on his gun agenda is the NRA's effective mantra calling for "stronger enforcement of existing gun laws," he has done nothing to prosecute the 800 convicted felons who illegally applied for Texas CCW licenses.

When it comes to reconsidering the Texas CCW law, Bush has gone in the other direction. The 1995 CCW law prohibited Texans from carrying concealed handguns into official sporting events, bars, correctional facilities, amusement parks, hospitals, nursing homes and "established places of worship."

So Bush went back in 1997 and extended the law so the CCW holders could carry their guns into places like churches, amusement parks and rest homes.

On "Today," Katie Couric asked Bush why he signed the 1997 Texas bill specifically removing hospitals, churches and amusement parks from the list of places CCW holders were prohibited from bringing their guns. "You think it's perfectly all right for people to carry concealed weapons into churches across the country?" Couric asked.

"No, no, no," Bush said to Couric, "but churches ... no, I didn't say that. Churches in our state of Texas do not let ... if they don't want somebody doing that, it won't happen. The reason that part of the bill was passed is because preachers wanted to be able to carry a concealed weapon in their own home on church grounds. But people aren't carrying guns in churches in Texas."

It is true that Bush didn't "say that" -- but he did sign it into law.

If Texas churches "don't want somebody doing that," they need to post a sign -- in both English and Spanish, letters in block print and at least one-inch high -- saying, "Pursuant to Section 30.06, Penal Code (trespass by holder of license to carry a concealed handgun), a person licensed under Article 4413(29ee), Revised Statute (concealed handgun law), may not enter this property with a concealed handgun."

Bush has put the burden on the church; it is assumed that preachers and parishioners should have no problem with loaded concealed handguns in the pews. As for people not carrying guns into churches in Texas, that's certainly open to debate, particularly at the Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth where seven people were killed in September.

But why would Bush sign a law allowing CCW holders to carry their guns into churches if he didn't think people were "carrying guns in churches in Texas"? Wasn't that the idea?

Hours after Bush tried to paint over his opposition to mandatory trigger locks by giving a bunch away and stammering when pinned down to talk about his record, he sent campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker onto CNN to debate Gore spokesman Chris Lehane on the issue.

Tucker discussed the governor's come-to-Jesus moment on trigger locks, and her belief that voters "know about his record here in Texas of passing tough laws against gun violence."

"Time and time again, the governor has sided with the gun industry over the safety of our children, that's been his record in Texas," Lehane said. "I indeed hope that Mindy is right and people do find out about his record in Texas. He supported overturning a 125-year law to allow people to carry concealed weapons. He went back two years later and amended that law to make it easier to bring guns into churches. The governor is just fundamentally out of step with mainstream America when it comes to gun-safety issues."

"Well, Chris has a lot of rhetoric, but usually has the facts wrong, and again in this case, Governor Bush has a strong record here in Texas, and in fact the law that he talked about President Clinton actually said was a good idea on Friday," Tucker said.

A Bush press aide trying to seek political cover on the gun issue through a Clinton endorsement -- how interesting.

When asked what Clinton thought about Bush's new trigger-lock giveaway, Clinton did indeed, say, "I think it's a good idea," but that was immediately followed by his question: "But why -- why is he doing that?

"You have to understand what's going on here," Clinton said, answering his own question in his inimitable fashion. "There was a report in the newspaper last week that a lobbyist from the NRA said they would have an office in the White House if Governor Bush was elected."

Bush, Clinton said, "wants to move away from that image. He wants people not to think that he won't do anything -- basically that the NRA will control policy on this. Which they will if he wins. And if he comes out and gives away gun trigger locks, then he doesn't have to explain why we're still importing large-capacity ammunition clips and why he doesn't want to close the gun-show loophole."

That's something that Bush's "little birdie" forgot to mention.