US gun lobby defiant

L-R: Wayne LaPierre, A woman protests during NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre's press conference in Washington, DC on Friday.Photo: AFP

The National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the US, has called for armed security guards to be posted in every school in the country and insisted that the only solution to gun violence in the wake of the Newtown massacre was more guns.
The National Rifle Association, which supports a broad interpretation of US citizens' constitutional right to bear arms, had been under pressure to respond in the wake of last week's massacre in a Connecticut elementary school.
Even as the NRA leaders made their combative and determined appearance, another four people died in Pennsylvania in America's latest shooting spree, including the alleged shooter.
And a string of celebrities including Jeremy Renner, Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyonce launched a video to back a campaign to clamp down on gun sales following the Newtown school massacre.
But the pro-gun lobbyists ceded no ground to those calling for tougher gun laws.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," declared NRA vice-president Wayne LaPierre, in his first public comments since the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
"I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation," he said, in a lengthy statement. He took no questions from reporters.
LaPierre said the NRA was ready to help train security teams for schools and work with teachers and parents to improve security measures, and accused the media and the political class of demonizing gun owners.
Last Friday, a troubled 20-year-old man burst into the Sandy Hook school and gunned down 20 six- and seven-year-old children and six staff members trying to protect them, before taking his own life. He also fatally shot his mother.
America has suffered an epidemic of gun violence over the last three decades including 62 mass shooting incidents since 1982. The vast majority of weapons used have been semi-automatic weapons obtained legally by the killers.
There were an estimated 310 million non-military firearms in the United States in 2009, roughly one per citizen, and people in America are 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun than someone in another developed country.
The statement immediately drew criticism from supporters of tougher gun control, who are pushing to ban semi-automatic assault weapons like the .223 Bushmaster rifle that Lanza used in Friday's shooting.
"The NRA leadership's drive to fill our schools with more deadly guns and ammo is wildly out of touch with responsible gun owners and the American public," New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg said.
Hollywood stars including Julianne Moore, Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm meanwhile recorded a video backing a campaign calling notably for a ban on assault weapons, as well as criminal background checks for every gun sold.