US gun lobby stands firm against regulation

The National Rifle Association opposes gun restrictions and reiterates call to place an armed guard in every school.

The most powerful pro-gun lobby group in the United States has ruled out any support for greater regulation of firearms or ammunition magazines in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut that left 26 people dead – including 20 children.

Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), said on Monday that planned legislation to outlaw military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines was “phony” and would not work.

Barack Obama, the US president, has said he would support a new bill to ban assault rifles and put Vice-President Joe Biden in charge of a panel looking at a wide range of other measures, from school security to mental health.

Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein has pledged to table a bill on January 3 that would ban at least 100 types of military-style semi-automatic assault weapons, and would curb the transfer, import and possession of such arms.

‘Phony legislation’

“I think that is a phony piece of legislation, and I do not believe it will pass for this reason,” LaPierre told NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme.

“It is all built on lies that have been found out …. We don’t think it works and we’re not going to support it,” he said.

“A gun is a tool, the problem is the criminal.”

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Some people oppose NRAs stance on gun control [AFP]

He repeated the NRA’s call to place an armed guard in every school and argued that prosecuting criminals and fixing the mental health system, rather than gun control, were the solutions to America’s mass shooting epidemic.

The NRA points to the fact that the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, when 12 kids and a teacher were gunned down by two senior students, occurred despite similar legislation being in force at the time.

“I don’t think it will (work). I keep saying it, and you just won’t accept it: it’s not going to work, it hasn’t worked,” LaPierre said.

America has suffered an explosion of gun violence over the last three decades including 62 mass shooting incidents since 1982.

The vast majority of weapons used have been semi-automatic handguns and rifles obtained legally by the killers.

There were an estimated 310 million non-military firearms in the United States in 2009, roughly one per citizen, and people in America are 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun than someone in another developed country.

‘NRA Killing Our Kids’

The NRA has been in the crosshairs since the Sandy Hook massacre and took the unusual step on Friday of holding a press conference and speaking out on the tragedy.

Rather than come out in support of limited gun control measures, the pro-gun lobby which retains a powerful influence over politicians, especially from rural districts where gun owners are the norm, demanded that armed police be deployed to every school in the country.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” LaPierre said at a media event, which was interrupted by hecklers, one holding a banner that read: “N.R.A. Killing Our Kids.”

LaPierre reaffirmed the group’s position and launched a fierce defence of gun owners’ rights, which he portrayed as being imperilled by rich folk in cities, elite politicians and a hysterical media.

“The average guy in the country values his freedom, doesn’t believe the fact that he can own a gun is part of the problem and doesn’t like the media and all these high-profile politicians blaming him,” he said.

“If it’s crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our schools, then call me crazy,” he added.

“If I’m a mom or a dad and I’m dropping my child off at school, I feel a whole lot safer.”

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies