NRA's call for armed guards in schools slammed

22 Dec 2012, 5:56 pm   -   Source: AFP
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NRA chief Wayne LaPierre is advocating posting an armed guard at every school in America. (AAP)

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre is advocating posting an armed guard at every school in America. (AAP)

The US National Rifle Association's call for armed police in all schools has been slammed by supporters of tougher gun control including politicians and Hollywood stars.

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The United States' most powerful pro-gun lobbying group demanded that armed police be deployed to every school in the country following a mass shooting that left 20 young children dead.
  
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, 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.
  
Then as LaPierre and his allies were on stage in Washington, police in Pennsylvania shot dead a man who had shot dead three people and wounded "several" state troopers.
  
These deaths were only the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States this year, and prompted President Barack Obama to throw his weight behind plans to revive a ban on assault weapons.
  
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.
  
But LaPierre insisted gun ownership was not the problem.
  
"You know, five years ago after the Virginia Tech tragedy when I said we should put armed security in every school, the media called me crazy," he said, referring to a 2007 campus shooting that left 32 people dead.
  
"But what if, what if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, he'd been confronted by qualified armed security?" he demanded.
  
"Will you at least admit it's possible... that 26 innocent lives might have been spared that day? Is it so abhorrent to you that you'd rather continue to risk the alternative?"
  
The statement did not impress Chris Murphy, the congressman who represents the district that includes the school.
  
"Walking out of another funeral and was handed the NRA transcript. The most revolting, tone deaf statement I've ever seen," he said, on Twitter.

People in Newtown have also rejected the National Rifle Associations calls for armed guards at all American schools, as this Newtown resident explains.

"If they want to promote balanced use of firearms and ownership of firearms, I think they also have to take into account and be spokespersons for this other issue, which is how to keep these weapons out of the hands of people who don't know how to use them respectfully, and intelligently."
  
And 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.
  
The protesters that attempted to drown out LaPierre's statement were more blunt. One bore a banner reading "NRA kills our kids" the other "NRA has blood on its hands." They were led away by security.
  
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.
  
"Columbine. Virginia Tech. Tucson. Aurora. Fort Hood. Oak Creek. Newtown. Newtown. Newtown," they intone in the black-and-white video, taking turns to list the names of America's worst gun massacres of recent years.
  
"How many more? How many more colleges? How many more classes? How many more movie theaters? How many more houses of faith? How many more shopping malls?" they add in the video on the "Demand a Plan" campaign website.
 

US Gun Laws , NRA

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NRA lunatic register

phw - from canberra, 5 months ago

I think the register of mentally unstable individuals suggetsed by the NRA is a splendid idea. No doubt they have already contributed a comprehensive list of their membership in support of the effort.

guards at schools

oncewas - from bribie island, 5 months ago

Guess who would be the first target when some fruitloop wants to invade a school to kill.

More guns aren't the answer

Raquel - from Melbourne, 5 months ago

How about changing the views on gun ownership? What reason is there for every Tom, Dick or Harry to own a gun? They are not protecting themselves because these psychos attack your children when they're not with you and your gun is safely locked away in its case at home.

Nuclear Warhead numbers can go down...why not semi-automatics?

Steven Brown - from Spring Hill, Brisbane, 5 months ago

Schools, Airports, Cinemas, Hospitals, Shopping Malls, inside Church's during Mass, Railway stations, in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, in a local council or Town Hall meeting, reading books in a library, in grocery stores and in warehouse bulk buy stores like Costco... better to stay inside and live online... or, be the President, and seek to immediately ban semi-automatic machine guns from public purchase. Past Presidents and Russia have reduced their nuclear weapons numbers.

Think about Reality

Think Peacefully - from City, Queensland, 5 months ago

The point needs to be this. These poor people, children, and mothers have lost their lives. What is the basic problem.... is it not that we need a fundamental change towards peace?... in every level, the heart, the mind, the body and the spirit. I think if each and everyone, including members of any association, occupy themselves with their families, and their personal faiths in peace... then there is no use for violence anymore? The father's mother's who love their child renplead for this

have they considered crazy security guards

Andi - from The Channon, 5 months ago

How do they know the security guards are going to be "good" guys? What it they go crazy! They know all the nooks and crannys if the school, they could find where anyone was hiding. Tatally freaky!!

Violent nation

Rashid - from WA, 5 months ago

Yes, start them young. GUN VIOLANCE is the American nation's ingrained culture, so to place the Police with Guns at school gate makes lot of sense.

Back to the Wild, Wild West!

Frankly Speaking - from Rowville Needs Railway, 5 months ago

Even if there were armed security in schools, what about outside the school, in shopping malls, village markets, town squares, train and bus stations, the list goes on. You may as well arm everyone and dispense with the police!

guns in schools

Leara - from vic, 5 months ago

Yeah, good plan, that's the answer MORE GUNS. wtf.

Freedom for the Children.

True Blue Ozzie - from Gladstone Q, 5 months ago

Just what kind of lobby group, would dismiss the freedom and innocence of children growing up in a safe free country? Just what do they think they are teaching the young, with Armed guards in every school, just to protect their use of weapons of war! The USA is not a war zone, there is no reason on this earth for citizens to have or hold such weapons of mass destruction. The Big Boys of the USA need to grow up, these guns are not toys

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