Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told members of the National Rifle Association earlier today that the lawsuit he filed against gun manufacturers in 2000 “is not necessarily what is needed now.’’

The Republican presidential hopeful told NRA members to “not feel singled out.’’

“I was excessive in every way that I could think of in order to reduce crime,’’ Giuliani said. “I enforced the guns laws that existed strongly.”

Giuliani added, “That is not necessarily what is needed now. It certainly isn’t the interpretation that I think is the correct interpretation of the Second Amendment. So I would say that I didn’t anticipate the lawsuit would go in some of the directions it is going.’’

However, the general counsel for Beretta USA Corp., which is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, disagreed with the former mayor’s characterization of the lawsuit.

“In fact the lawsuit is exactly the same one he started at the beginning of his administration,’’ said Jeff Reh, Beretta’s general counsel. The case is scheduled to be argued today before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Reh said.