In that same booming voice, Mr. Heston, who declined to be interviewed until after the election, said at the banquet that the Rykers were dedicated to ''tools that always worked, like courage, duty, courtesy, teamwork, compassion and common sense.'' Praising Jake and his 14-year-old brother, Josh, he said, ''I'll bet that growing up, those boys felt a growing sense of community, a community called America that stretched from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea.''

With the boys and their parents, Robert and Linda, standing close by, he said softly in closing, ''Our country -- and our N.R.A. -- is proud to claim them.''

The audience of 1,600 could not get to their feet to applaud fast enough.

But as the rifle association embarks on its latest efforts at spin -- even trying to use a school shooting to its advantage -- officials are banking on more than Mr. Heston's celebrity and passion to balance the scales of public opinion.

As the keynote speaker who preceded him, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the majority leader, offered the audience both a psychological and political lift, saying he was ''tired of being on the defensive'' about the right to own a gun and assuring the crowd, saying, ''You are the mainstream of America and anyone who portrays you as something other than that shows how far out of the mainstream they are.''

Mr. Lott struck other chords by vowing to oppose any efforts to tighten gun-control laws and advocating more gun ownership as a way to reduce violent crime. He proposed using police stations as self-defense centers to teach the proper use of guns and campus Reserve Officer Training Corps programs to educate students about gun use.

''Everyone is scared except the criminals,'' Mr. Lott said. ''The way to change that is, give the criminals something to be afraid of. That something is a well-armed public.''

Mr. LaPierre, whose association lobbies for weapons makers and distributors, said he discussed an experiment with Mr. Lott over the weekend, in which one city would be designated to test the rifle association's crime-fighting ideas. Theoretically, Mr. LaPierre said, that would include vigorous prosecutions for gun-related crimes, as well as harsh sentencing, no releases on bail, no plea bargaining and the full support of the Department of Justice. The plan would also encourage law-abiding citizens to own guns.