WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani on Friday sought to persuade members of the National Rifle Association to look past his lengthy record of pushing for tougher gun control by saying that his views on this issue had been changed by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The attacks on New York and the Pentagon put "a whole different emphasis on the things America needs to do to protect itself, and maybe even a renewed emphasis on the Second Amendment," Giuliani told the roughly 500 NRA members gathered at a Washington hotel.

While never expressly repudiating his stance on gun control, he sought repeatedly to assure the audience that he would not seek to place new limits on gun ownership, saying that "law enforcement should focus on enforcing the laws that exist on the books as opposed to passing new extensions of laws."

Giuliani acknowledged that his record put him at odds with the NRA but pledged that he would uphold the Second Amendment. He said his clampdown on guns in New York was needed to reduce crime and was focused only on criminals, and he added that he would carry the same philosophy into the White House. He urged NRA members to recognize their points in common with him and support him as a candidate who could beat the Democrats next fall.

"You have to figure out who is electable and who can win, because if we make a mistake about that, the discussion will go very much in a direction that you and I disagree with," he said.

He also came close to disavowing a lawsuit against gunmakers that he initiated while mayor of New York.

The 2000 lawsuit sought to hold gunmakers liable for shootings with illegal guns (the case, by chance, was heard this week in a federal appeals court). Then, Giuliani called it an "aggressive step towards restoring accountability to an industry that profits from the suffering of others."

Friday, Giuliani backed away from the suit, saying he might not uphold it if he were a judge.

As mayor, Giuliani was an outspoken supporter of a national ban on assault weapons, saying in a 1995 interview that the NRA's "defense of assault weapons, and their unwillingness to deal with some of the realities here that we face in our cities is a terrible, terrible mistake."