Gun control legislation has not been effective in reducing violent crime, and it infringes on the constitutional right to bear arms, a leader in the movement to ease restrictions on gun posession told an audience of 30 last night at the Kennedy School.

But others at the Institute of Politics panel discussion urged states to adopt stricter gun control laws as a way of cutting the crime rate.

Richard Gardiner, assistant general counsel for the National Rifle Association (NRA), said current laws regulating the posession of firearms do not prevent misuse.

"Gun control has nothing to do with violent crime," Gardiner said. "The law is not working at all. It's a total disaster, in fact."

Gardiner said statistics indicate that the rate of violent crime actually increased when laws making it more difficult to obtain handguns were enacted in the past.

"The problem of violence in America is not founded in our gun laws," said Dexter Lehtinen, a Florida state senator. He said the prohibition on guns "is not a substitute for the fundamental social problem of violence."

But advocates of gun control said that tougher legislation would greatly decrease the rate of violent crime.

"We have to convince the people that it would be a safer society by diminishing the number of handguns out there," said George Bachrach, a former Massachusetts state senator.

Bachrach said licenses should not be issued to "every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Jane that walks down the street" but should be issued for hunting and security uses.

Sarah Brady, the vice chairman of Handgun Control, Inc., said that although law-abiding citizens should be allowed to have guns for "legitimate reasons," such as self-defense, legislators should ensure that felons and the mentally incompetent are able to obtain them.

"We don't have to make it as easy to buy a handgun as it is to buy bubble gum or tuna fish," she said.

Brady said she supported a plan to delay delivery of guns by seven days to allow authorities to check the purchaser's background and to discourage impulsive crime.

"The real problem is saving people's lives. It's a public safety issue," Brady said. She added, "No matter what statistic you want to use, 20,000 handgun deaths each year is just too many."