The country does not need “one more law on top of 20,000 laws” that aims to control gun ownership in response to the mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the CEO of the National Rifle Association said Sunday.
Wayne LaPierre, who participated in a lengthy interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host David Gregory, said the root of violent outbursts in the United States remains “monsters walking the streets” who instead should be institutionalized by a failing mental-health system.
“I’m telling you what I think will make people safe, and what every mom and dad — will make them feel better, when they drop their kid off at school in January, is if we have a police officer in that school — a good guy, that if some horrible monster tried to do something, they’ll be there to protect them,” LaPierre said. “If it’s crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our school to protect our children, then call me crazy.
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“I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it,” he continued, “It’s the one thing that would keep people safe, and the NRA is going to try to do that.”
LaPierre reiterated the message he delivered Friday at a press conference, when he called for armed security at every U.S. school. He said he is working with former Arkansas Rep. Asa Hutchinson to support an “immediate appropriation before Congress” to that effect.
“I know there’s a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens,” LaPierre said. “Let’s make our kids safe. Let’s not argue about this endless argument about gun control.”
He stopped short of saying the NRA would help foot the bill for the extra police duty and instead pointed the finger at the federal government.
“Why can’t we protect our most precious resource,” he said. “With all the money in the federal budget, if we can’t come up to do this, there’s something wrong in this country.”
The school-based armed-security force could comprise a voluntary corps of retired police officers, military personnel and Secret Service agents, LaPierre suggested.
When Gregory asked whether the NRA would support any new gun laws, including limits on rounds of ammunition and high-capacity magazines, LaPierre countered, “It’s not going to make any kid safer.”
“[Sen.] Dianne Feinstein had her ban, and Columbine occurred,” LaPierre said, referring to the California Democrat’s 10-year assault-weapons law and the 1999 deadly shooting of 15 at a high school in Colorado. “It’s not going to work. 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.”
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He called for an overhaul of a “mental-health system completely and totally collapsed” and the creation of a working database to keep track of adults with such illnesses.
“You can’t legislate morality,” LaPierre said. “Legislation works on the sane. Legislation works on the law-abiding. It doesn’t work on criminals. There are monsters out there every day, and we need to do something to stop them.”
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