NRAs press conference disrupted by protesters
"NRA has blood on his hands. Shame on the NRA. NRA killing our children. "
The crying woman, the last of two protesters who were kicked out of the press conference, Vice-President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) Wayne La Pierre spoke.
A few minutes earlier, a male representative evicted.
- We must put an end to the killings. We need to ban assault weapons, he shouted as he was dragged out of the room.
Then he had held a placard with the words "NRA KILLING OUR KIDS" before the pulpit for over half a minute (see video at the top of the case).
Journalists in the audience shouted for a response from the Vice President of the NRA, but La Pierre just shook his head and continued on the written speech.
Request more armament
A week after the shooting massacre in Connecticut , was the powerful weapons organization get his reaction.
A hundred protesters had prior to the press conference lined up outside the hotel, a block away from the White House.
The message from protesters was clear: Now NRA turning in view of stricter firearms.
But Vice President Wayne La Pierre talked about anything but stricter gun laws.
- NRA requesting armed police at all schools in the U.S., said La Pierre.
He laid much of the blame for the massacre on violent video games and movies.
NRA also expressed a desire for stricter control of mentally unstable people, but reiterated the message that more armament is the answer to the school massacre.
- Just a good man with a gun can stop an evil man with a gun, said La Pierre from the pulpit.
School Massacre in Newtown shows that lack of armament in schools puts children at risk, said La Pierre.
School Massacre in Newtown shows that lack of armament in schools puts children at risk, said La Pierre.
Vice President Wayne La Pierre in weapons organization NRA.
Photo: ALEX WONG / AFP
He pointed out that he already after the school massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007, where 32 people were killed, suggested that all schools should have armed guards.
- The time stamped media me like crazy. But what if Adam Lanza had been greeted by trained, armed security guards when he began shooting into the Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday? Can not we at least admit that it is possible that 26 innocent lives could have been spared that day? Lapierre said.
The alternative, to continue without armed guards, is too risky, he argued.
The conference hall was packed by journalists from around the world. All the major U.S. TV channels sent directly.
Change for Newtown tragedy
NRA is America's largest lobby group for guns rights, and has always clung to Americans' right to own firearms, and resisted almost any form of regulation of firearms sales.
Now the guns debate flared up again in the U.S., after the massacre to Newtown in Connecticut where 20 children were shot and killed.
he National Rifle Association has four million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. We are shocked, sad and grief-stricken over the senseless killings in Newtown, said in the first official statement from the NRA.
Weapons Debate
Until La Pierre's press conference on Friday it has otherwise been quiet from the NRA, which has been shown to "normal decency."
The organization has in the past week planned how to deal with the demands for stricter laws and what appears to be a change of mood after the killings in Newtown.
In an announcement earlier this week said the organization that it "is prepared to provide meaningful contribution" in efforts to prevent further tragedies like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Such contributions, elaborated La Pierre Friday, may be contributing to the training of school guards.
- NRA will help with all their knowledge, all their dedication and all their resources to develop a contingency program for all schools in the U.S. that wants it, said La Pierre.
Close ties
The organization says it speaks on behalf of its 4 million members, but National Public Radio writes in an online article that the NRA also going to speak for the weapons industry, the organization has close ties to.
The radio station refers to how Sturm Ruger a period gave a dollar to NRA for every gun sold. And how Beretta assisted with $ 1 million in defense of the Constitution's point about the right to own guns.
Conversely way NRA supports a number of politicians, and are careful to remind them who they get money from each gun laws are discussed.
Obama will tighten
President Barack Obama has had enough and want a more restrictive firearms.
- Violence epidemic must be stopped, the president said the same day that NRA sent out his statement.
Obama has picked Vice President Joe Biden to lead a bipartisan commission to prevent new school murders in the future.
Thursday Biden met the rest of the government and representatives from the police, the national sherifforeningen and the National Association of Police Organizations.
Obama would include a limit on how much ammo each person can buy, and stricter control and background checks on those who get gun license.
