Suddenly, the National Rifle Association is on the defensive. More and more, politicians across the country, outraged by guns rampant and a soaring murder rate in the cities, are facing the withering financial firepower of the N.R.A. lobby without flinching"You've got to be willing to stand up and take them on," says John Russo, president of the New Jersey State Senate. "The polls that we run show that most people favor gun control. If we can beat them in a major confrontation, it's going to send out the message that they're a paper tiger."

Russo, a former law-and-order prosecutor, has introduced a bill to make ownership of handguns illegal in his state. New Jersey already has the toughest gun control law in the nation, which requires a gun buyer to apply to the lo cal police department for a purchase permit, a procedure that can sometimes take more than ninety days. The N.R.A. has rented an office across the street from the state capitol in Trenton and intends to wage a heavy campaign against Russo's bill.

But even with 2.8 million members and a $70 million annual budget ($12 million for lobbying), the N.R.A. can't count on winning anymore. On March 13, California's Legislature became the first to pass a bill prohibiting the manufacture, possession or sale of semiautomatic guns-despite fierce opposition by the association. And the next day, President Bush banned imports of semiautomatic assault rifles. His decision reversed the stand he had taken less than a month before, but it represents an even bigger blow to the N.R.A. because he is one of its life members.

The N.R.A. now faces gun control or assault weapon banishment legislation in more than thirty states. In Washington, D.C., ten of thirteen City Council members have endorsed a bill to make handgun manufacturers and distributors liable for deaths and injuries caused in shootings. In Florida, State Representative Ron Silver has launched a campaign to collect 343,000 signatures on a petition to set up a 1990 ballot referendum. The goal is to amend the state Constitution to require all handgun purchasers to wait seven days for the merchandise, giving police time to check on a buyer's background. The effort has the support of more than a dozen organizations, ranging from the Florida Chamber of Commerce to the state's Public Defenders Association.

Last September, the N.R.A. beat back the Brady amendment in the House by a vote of 228 to 182. Named after James Brady, the presidential press secretary who was shot in the head with a cheap handgun during the 1981 attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, that amendment would have made the seven-day waiting period national law. The N.R.A. victory cost $4 million, but the organization has had to go right back to the till: The amendment has been reintroduced as a bill in the House this session, with strong bipartisan support. In the Senate, Ohio's liberal Democrat Howard Metzenbaum is leading the fight to bring it to the Senate floor. Metzenbaum also has introduced S 386, a bill to ban the manufacture, importation, possession and transfer of the new automatic assault weapons proliferating throughout the nation [see Josh Sugarmann, opposite].

The N.R.A. spent even more money in a single state, Maryland, last fall-$6.1 million. But this time it lost, in a major battle against supporters of a ban on "Saturday night specials." At stake was a bill introduced in the Maryland House of Delegates by Baltimore legislator Ralph Hughes. All earlier attempts to outlaw inexpensive handguns had failed. "The N.R.A. always said it was impossible to define a 'Saturday night special,"' says Hughes. "I think they boxed themselves in with that argument. We decided to approach the issue on a case-by-ease basis."

The N. R.A. stacked legislative hearings on the bill with its members and supporters. But the Washington-based Handgun Control Inc. mustered its own troops, including Coretta Scott King and Sarah Brady, its chair and James Brady's wife. …