NRA’s Wayne LaPierre: Put “armed police officers in every school.”

Thank you for not caving, Sir.

In his first extensive public remarks since the mass shooting at a Connecticut school last Friday, the head of National Rifle Association called Friday for all schools to have armed police officers in an effort to curb violent outbreaks akin to the Connecticut shooting.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at a news conference in Washington. LaPierre also called on Congress to act immediately “to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every school in this nation.”

LaPierre’s words are likely to set off a national debate over two starkly different views about curbing gun violence. On one side stand those like the NRA head, who believe that arming more citizens is the answer; on the other, gun-control advocates pressing for tighter restrictions on firearms.
LaPierre was interrupted twice during his remarks by gun-control protesters; one held up a sign that read: “NRA Killing Our Kids.”

“Politicians pass laws for gun-free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them … in doing so they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk,” said LaPierre, head of the nation’s largest gun rights group.

The remarks came after a week of near-silence from the NRA following the mass shooting last Friday in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary school. The group’s social media accounts went dark, and it issued just one public statement, saying its members were “shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders.”

LaPierre said that if the Newtown school had armed officers on site, lives might have been spared.
“Will you at least admit it is possible that 26 little kids — that 26 innocent lives might have been spared that day?” he asked.

LaPierre announced that the NRA will develop a “model national schools shield emergency response program” that will be led by former Arkansas congressman Asa Hutchinson, who served as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration under President George W. Bush.

“From armed security to building design and access control, to information technology, to student and teacher training, this multifaceted program will be developed by the very best experts in the field,” LaPierre said of the effort.

More @ WP