U.S. gun lobby calls for armed guards for every school

Protestors hold up a sign during a speech by Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), at a news conference in Washington D. C. Dec. 21, 2012. NRA, a powerful U.S. gun lobby, on Friday called for armed guards for every school in the country, as the response of the gun industry to the mass shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

National Rifle Association (NRA) , a powerful U.S. gun lobby, on Friday called for armed guards for every school in the country, as the response of the gun industry to the mass shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, told a Washington press conference that "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," and called on Congress to appropriate enough funds to post an armed guard at every school in the nation.

In the first official response of NRA after the Sandy Hook tragedy, LaPierre put the blame on Hollywood, video games industry and the media, saying they were purveying images of violence.

At the conference, LaPierre put forward a program called National School Shield, which would essentially put armed guards at schools, relying mostly on local police forces. He called on Congress to appropriate money to fund the program, and said the NRA would put forward a model of the program for others to use. The conference was interrupted twice by protesters.

The Sandy Hook Elementary Massacre, which took place a week ago, saw 20 school kids killed by one shooter. Six adults were also killed by the shooter at the school before he committed suicide. The shooter killed his mother before the shooting rampage. The massacre renewed calls for gun control.

Xinhua