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Subscribe to RSSAfter a controversial press conference last week, NRA head Wayne LaPierre made an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" saying the American people would be "crazy" to not put armed guards in schools. Meanwhile, Newtown, Conn., continues coping with the death of 26 people during the tragic shooting. NBC's Ron Mott report.
Updated 10:50 a.m. ET: On NBC’s Meet the Press, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre on Sunday refused to support new gun control legislation and maintained his support for putting armed guards and police in schools in response to the Dec. 14 school shootings in Newtown, Conn.
“If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre told NBC’s David Gregory. “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that.”
He added that the United States is now spending $2 billion to train police officers in Iraq and asked why federal funds could not be spent to train school guards to protect schools in the United States.
Asked about restricting the size of ammunition magazine or clips, LaPierre said, “I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference. There are so many different ways to evade that, even if you had that. You had that for 10 years when (Sen.) Dianne Feinstein passed that ban in ’94. It was on the books. Columbine occurred right in the middle of it – it didn’t make any difference.”
For the first time since the Connecticut shootings, NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre answers questions from NBC's David Gregory about his organization's stance on gun violence in America.
Feinstein, D-Calif., was the author of the 1994 ban on certain types of semiautomatic firearms which expired in 2004. She has announced that she will introduce new legislation early next year. Semiautomatic firearms, including semiautomatic weapons sometimes called “assault weapons,” fire one round per pull of the trigger.
“I know there’s a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens,” LaPierre said, but he insisted that an armed guard might have been able to stop Adam Lanza, the killer in Connecticut.
“If I’m a mom or a dad and I’m dropping my child off at school I’d feel a whole lot safer” if there were trained armed security guards or police protecting the school from people such as Lanza, LaPierre said, although he conceded that “nothing is perfect” as a deterrent against crime.
LaPierre also said, “We have a mental health system in this country that has completely and totally collapsed. We have no national database of these lunatics” and complained that de-institutionalization of the mentally ill had put too many dangerous people on the streets of America. “We have a completely cracked mentally ill system that’s got these monsters walking the streets,” LaPierre said.
And he said many states do not put their records of those adjudicated to be mentally ill into the national instant check system that is designed to screen out convicted criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns.
The NRA CEO also argued that the federal government had invested far too little effort into enforcing the longstanding federal law that makes it illegal for convicted felons to possess guns. The federal effort to enforce existing restrictions on gun possession, he said, is “pitiful.”
On Meet the Press, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre forcefully defended his call for armed officers in every school. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
He said, “If you want to control violent criminals, take them off the street.”
But he firmly opposed curbs on private gun sales and contended that the advocates of stringent restrictions on such sales want to put “every gun sale under the thumb of the federal government.”
LaPierre called Feinstein’s bill “a phony piece of legislation” which he predicted would not become law.
After a week of silence following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School the NRA responded, saying armed guns in schools is the answer. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," said Wayne LaPierre, NRA's executive vice president. NBC's John Harwood reports.
President Barack Obama has tasked Vice President Joe Biden with the job of consulting with members of the Cabinet and outside organizations to come up with legislative proposals by next month.
When asked about this initiative, LaPierre said, “if it’s a panel that’s just going to be made up of a bunch of people that for the past 20 years has been trying to destroy the Second Amendment, I’m not interested in sitting on that panel…. The NRA is not going to let people lose the Second Amendment in this country.”
Following LaPierre on Meet the Press, Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., said that the NRA leader is “so extreme and so tone deaf that he actually helps the cause of us passing sensible gun legislation in the Congress…. He is so doctrinaire and so adamant that I believe gun owners turn against him as well.”
Schumer said that LaPierre believes “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is good gun with a gun. What about trying to stop the bad guy from getting the gun in the first place? That’s common sense. Most Americans agree with it.”
But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., said killers such as Lanza were “non-traditional criminals… people who are not wired right for some reason. And I don’t know if there’s anything Lindsey Graham can do in the Senate to stop mass murder from somebody that’s hell bent on doing crazy things” -- apart from better security in schools. The South Carolina Republican also called for getting “mass murders off the streets before they act, by better mental health detection.”
After a week of calls for tighter gun restrictions, the National Rifle Association called for putting more armed security officers in the nation's schools and expressed concerns about violence portrayed in video games, movies and music. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
Graham said that while he was out Christmas shopping in South Carolina this weekend, people “have come up to me (and said) ‘Please don’t let the government take my guns away.’ And I’m going to stand against the assault (weapons) ban because it didn’t work before and it won’t work in the future.”
LaPierre’s appearance on Meet the Press followed the strong reaction over his defiant stand during a Friday press briefing about the NRA’s response to the Connecticut school shootings.
Amid a national debate over what security measures school administrators should take to ensure the safety of students, gun-control advocates reacted with disbelief Friday to LaPierre’s call for armed guards in every school and his blaming of Hollywood films, video games, and popular music for school shootings such as the one in Connecticut.
How firmly the NRA’s allies in Congress will oppose any new legislative initiatives from Obama, Feinstein or others remains an open question.
In a test of the NRA’s legislative influence, the House of Representatives late last year passed the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, which has not yet been acted on by the Senate.
In the House vote, 229 Republicans and 43 Democrats voted for the NRA-backed bill.
The House bill allows a person with a photo identification card and a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm in one state to carry a concealed handgun in another state in accordance with the restrictions of that second state.
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Mr. LaPierre another cowardly chickenhawk draft dodger from the Republican side of the aisle. Why am I not surprised! I would hope everyone could agree if a gunman had to stop and reload his weapon every 5 or 6 rounds then some of this may, just may, have been avoided. I am not for banning guns just for sensibility when it comes to guns. If anyone has a GOOD rational for 20, 30 round magazines or 100 round drum magazines please let us all know. All I see is John Wayne wannabees, and Ted "the diaper" Nugent apologists in the NRA.
Once again the anti-gun nuts are foaming at the mouth with their hypocrisy. God forbid I have a 16 rd magazine for my 9mm but it's fine for one man to mount another or for thousands of abortions killing unborn children. You liberals are gonna find out just how much the 2nd amendment means to millions of gun owning Americans!
What a dumb idiot.You idiots are gonna find out what real power is.
Why do you need a 16 round magazine for your 9mm?
If something bad is going down and I reach for my 9mm then I look at my clip options, I'm grabbing the largest clip I got. I can only assume the unknown I'll be confronting isn't worried about the size of my clip.
I could go with two eight round clips or four four round clips, heck i'd grab em all and start with the sixteen.
#53.2:
Why would he not? Who are you to even ask, really? It is extremely tiresome to have to try and do the thinking for most of the non-thinking individuals who get all hysterical about the subject of guns, but here's a freebie. You only get one.
Let's take a home defense situation as a reason to need a bigger magazine. For the few anti-gun screamers I encounter constantly who have even evolved just enough to think that far ahead, the scenario they assume involves one intruder. (Because I'm sure y'all are thinking that multiple assailants would be playing by the rules of "fairness", and it would be soooo, um, wrong to, gang up on someone. Right? LOL.)
Soooo... how many bullets d'you think it might take to stop the threat of multiple assailants, Einstein? The answer is, you don't know. I don't know. The bleating, drum-beating anti-gun crowd never thinks about that. (And it's long past the time for you all to start.) But the very last thing you want to be doing in a self-defense situation is having to stop and re-load while trying to defend your home, life and loved ones against the invasion of several criminals. Simple, huh? Nothing nefarious, just plain common sense.
Paranoia is the basis for the "clip size" argument. Who's to say your perpetrator doesn't have a 100 round drum mag, or a belt-fed 7.62?
If everyone had a muzzleloader (as per the drafting-era of the 2nd Amendment), we would all be on equal terms, and not trying to out-piss each other.
If a frog had pockets, he'd carry a gun and shoot snakes, I'm sure. It isn't paranoia when a criminal has entered your personal space and is trying to kill you. It means he or she really is out to get you.
If everyone in this world respected the laws already established and didn't feel they had the right to commit crimes, we wouldn't need guns at all, now would we? Here's reality: Life isn't about equal terms. And I for one do not consider protecting my life to be trying to "out-piss" anyone. I may not live through the assault, but I sure as hell rate that fighting chance. You don't get to tell me otherwise. I abide by the law; save the lecture for the bad actors out there who steal and kill with illegal weapons.
In the words of that great southern philosopher Ronnie Van Zant " hand guns are made for killing,ain't no good for nothing else".
Mr Van Zant was pro gun. What now, idiot?
what we didnt have guns back in the 50s ,60s 70s etc.? you people dont get it do you? back in the day you never heard of shootings like today,there was still guns then but people had some morals and believed in things like the 10 commandments that say-thou shalt not kill.if you have a kid today watching violent video games all day long and has access to a assault rifle and he gets mad enough to kill ,what do you think is going to happen? no ,guns are not the problem.this Godless society is the problem.
Good Lord,some of the stupid things gun freaks say are just insane.My favorite[Guns don't kill people,people kill people]DER! How these idiots think is like a brain dead person.The one about cell phones is really bad.If a cell phone kills you,do you sue the cell company?Really?No thought about the pain these kids felt or that the country looks about the same as retatrd heaven to the world.Just,It's my right. Not anymore goofy.Organize,sue and sue again till they are broke and crying.The scum of the earth just proved again.
According to history, bombs work even better. Google Bath School Bombing idiot heh heh
people spouting inraged fear , like jackalac1234, are the scariest part of this whole situation. "Those who would trade freedom for security, lose both and deserve neither."
ottovonranke
You are speaking for yourself perhaps heh heh?
Brilliant riposte! [Sarcasm]
Where are all these uneducated people coming from and who gave them computers lol. Can't believe many of the comments on these sites heh heh
I guess John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Richard Speck forgot to read that commandment.
How about Janet Reno?
Oh that's rich! Now the right wing lemmings are echoing a combination of Huckabee/Lapierre "logic": we have a godless society so we should ban video games.
It's wayyyyyyy to late to have gun control in this country ! If you wan't to get guns and create mayhem there are millions of guns to get, easily ! It's best we all shut up and watch for the next disaster and hope you are not in the church, market,hospital, school,university, theatre, mall, restaurant,where IT WILL HAPPEN !
Just renewed my membership yesterday and sent them a check for $500. What's next, we have people looking to strip us of our 1st amendment right also? Oh wait, that's already happening too
.
And you gun nuts call us Sheeple!!
Paranoid? Why not move to Pakistan where you can have unlimited access to all of the military hardware you desire. Ah, Pakistan; that peaceful utopia.
PS Isn't it LaPierre calling for censorship of 1st Amendment rights?
NRA
Not Readily Accountable
There is no way gun ownership should be infringed upon in this country. We need to fully uphold the 2nd Amendment rights of us Americans, as written by our forefathers.
Therefore, every American has the constitutional right to bear muzzle-loaders. All other post-colonial era firearms shall be subjected to scrutiny.
Hey! Don't knock the 2nd Amendment! Every single one of those mass murderers was practicing his right to bear arms!
What's wrong with closing the gun show loophole, limiting the size of clips and banning assault weapons?
Logic??
Why would not the Libs. want a guard at schools. everyplace you go has guards, let the libs give up there guns.
more people than ''libs'' have children in schools this is not a left right thing except to you people.
Wow, Randy. You're suggesting a treasure trove of funding via middle class taxpayers? Isn't "paying one cent in taxes" against your ideology? Humm, strip a poor person of their only access to food, shelter, and medical attention. BUT, freely fund armed militia in our childrens' schools so that the testosterone-challenged can cling to their 40 round banana clips.
Inside-out philosophy like this is what is killing the Republican (GOTP) party. Keep up the great work!
The horrific grammar, usage , spelling and punctuation exhibited in that sentence(?) alone clearly edifies the need for schools to be a place of learning, not shooting.
Well stated, William. Then again, schools are becoming, more and more, a place to play football and learn to be a corporate stooge.
Randy Bob (hill folk?), your disdain for education is clearly obvious.
last time i checked elementary school kids werent playing football or becoming corporate stooges,and any one who is becoming a stooge is doing it by choice.Thats why you go to school to become enlightened enough to make decisions as to how to live your life and not become an idiot who has nothing to show but the worship of a weapon with a paranoid hatred of one group or another.
the second amendment specifies a ''well regulated militia'' La Pierre(if that really is this turkeys name) doesnt strike me as a well regulated anything.
Yes, and muzzle-loaders, at that.
I don't advocate gun ownership but as a fellow American I will defend your right to own one, just not an arsenal. Further regulation may not be the answer, but I think we can all agree, we have to try something, for if we do nothing what does that say about us as a society.
Thanks for that IaintdrunkImjustdrinkin, same back to ya... I'd like to try solutions that involve mental health a top the fix-it chart.
Anything that glorifies gun use can be responsible for violence resulting from it, whether it be video games and violent movies (indeed, NRA), the NRA propaganda, shooting ranges, gun-enhusiast mothers and friends. THe NRA tries to only blame video games/movies without taking responsibility for the role they play in this respect.
!!!
"In the House vote, 229 Republicans and 43 Democrats voted for the NRA-backed bill." You Libs do notice that 43 Democrats agreed with this bill. P.S., good luck with your worthless gun banning legislation. Why don't you put your efforts into the real problem such as (1) mental health issues and the lack of laws forcing those with these issues into treatment, (2) the moral decay of society and the lack of personal responsibility and (3) allowing your children to raise themselves and you as a parent instead of you teaching them values and respect for their fellow man. I could go on but what's the use.
Randy, the libs just hire armed guards.
Our congressman and senators hide behind there armed guards and concealed carry permits and tell our children that it is okay to be with out protection.
I want a rocket-launcher and a few heat-seeking missiles. I feel the need to protect myself.
From crazy gun-nut rednecks.
im sure the al-qaeda will sell them to you repub.
Read the recent news again; the CT incident was not committed by a gun-nut "redneck." Leave the brothers and sisters of the South out of the rhetoric.
republicanbs
From crazy gun-nut rednecks.
Bath School Disaster
on May 18, 1927, that killed 38 elementary school children, two teachers, and four other adults and injured at least 58 people. Kehoe first killed his wife, set off a major explosion in a school building, and committed suicide with a third explosion. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7–14 years of age[1]) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest mass murder in a school in United States history.[2]
Courtesy of Wiki website, just google it heh heh
So did that guy play video games or watch violent movies?
probably a golfer ;/