In an event described as a press conference -- though he didn't take questions -- National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre on Friday called for more guns, not fewer, in the wake of a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. On Sunday, he'll be asked to give answers, after some decried his initial statement as insensitive and counterproductive.NBC's David Gregory will interview LaPierre on "Meet the Press" Sunday morning.
The NRA effectively had been silent until Friday, exactly one week after Adam Lanza shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown and killed 20 children -- none of them older than 7 -- and six adults. He used a "Bushmaster AR-15 assault-type weapon" to mow down his victims, said Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance, before killing himself with a handgun.The rampage ignited renewed national debates over gun control, mental health care and school safety.Instead of expressing openness to more stringent gun control measures, LaPierre doubled-down and gave no hint he would support any restrictions, including those on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Instead, he blamed video games and the media, while also proposing putting an armed guard in every U.S. school in order to protect schoolchildren.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said.Some gun owners and mostly Republican officials rallied around LaPierre, and some -- such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- have indicated they support putting armed guards, or even teachers with concealed weapons, in schools.CNN iReporter Jason Asselin applauded the NRA's stance, even proposing that U.S. troops returning from war zones serve as armed guards. "Right now, our schools remain unprotected," he said. "Action is needed. Our children deserve to be protected.
But most of the reaction to LaPierre has been more negative.Democratic Senator-elect and U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, whose district includes Newtown, called LaPierre's words "the most revolting, tone deaf statement I've ever seen." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, blasted them as "a shameful evasion of the crisis facing the country." And former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he found the remarks "very haunting and very disturbing. This wave of criticism continued Saturday.
New York's normally politically polar opposite tabloids, for instance, offered the same take: The Daily News' headline called LaPierre the "Craziest Man on Earth," while Rupert Murdoch's New York Post ran with, "Gun Nut! NRA loon in bizarre rant over Newtown. Rick Huffman, another CNN iReporter and a retired police officer, cut up his NRA membership card in the wake of the mass shooting, which he said changed his views on gun control."There's got to be a limit to what they let citizens have at their disposal," the Michigan resident said.Both sides, at least, appear to agree something needs to be done to prevent more mass shootings like what happened December 14 in the once quiet Connecticut town. President Barack Obama used his speech at a prayer service for the massacre's victims to call for action and subsequently tapped Vice President Joe Biden to lead a group charged with coming up with solutions.Polls suggest that, after Newtown, the American public is increasingly open to measures such as the ban on assault weapons, which was in effect in the 1990s until it lapsed in 2004.
A CNN/ORC poll conducted after the shooting shows that a slight majority of Americans favor restrictions on guns. Conservative Democrats and even some Republicans who have supported gun rights have said they are open to discussing gun control.In his speech last Sunday night, Obama insisted inaction was not an option, especially when it comes to protecting children."We can't tolerate this anymore," the president said, alluding not only to Newtown but three other mass shootings over the past two years. "These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change."
