NRA responds to Newtown shooting with call for armed school guards
Posted December 21, 2012 12:36 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As the residents of Newtown, Conn. marked the one-week anniversary of the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 26 students and staff at an elementary school, the National Rifle Association (NRA) declared: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
The controversial group held a highly-anticipated news conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday in response to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Chief executive Wayne LaPierre suggested armed guards should be placed in all America schools when students return from Christmas break.
“I call on Congress today to act immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every school — and to do it now, to make sure that blanket of safety is in place when our children return to school in January,” he said.
LaPierre said violent video games and films should share the blame for the rampage.
“In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behaviour and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year,” he said.
The news conference was interrupted twice by protesters who held banners reading “stop the killing.”
And while the NRA responded to the shooting, the New England community continued to pay final respects to the victims of the rampage. The sombre anniversary was marked in Newtown with a moment of silence broken by the toll of church bells at 9:30 a.m.
Moments of silence were held across the United States.
Police say Adam Lanza, 20, forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14 and murdered six school staff and 20 Grade 1 students aged six and seven. Lanza shot his mother to death in the home they shared before getting in her car and driving to the school. He shot himself as authorities closed in.
Lanza used three of his mother’s guns to carry out the attack, authorities said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is leading a task force that will propose recommendations on curbing gun violence in January at the behest of President Barack Obama. Many politicians have called on the government to impose a ban on assault rifles.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says approximately 11,000 Americans were killed by guns last year, not including suicides.
With files from Reuters
