NRA calls for armed school guards as US mourns massacre

WASHINGTON/NEWTOWN, Connecticut (REUTERS) - The powerful United States (US) gun rights lobby went on the offensive on Friday, arguing that schools should have armed guards, on a day that Americans remembered the victims of the Connecticut school massacre with a moment of silence.

National Rifle Association (NRA) chief executive Wayne LaPierre argued that attempts to keep guns out of schools were ineffective and made schools more vulnerable than airports, banks and other public buildings patrolled by armed guards.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Mr LaPierre told a news briefing, calling on lawmakers to station armed police officers in all schools by the time children return from the Christmas break in January.

Referring to the 20-year-old who entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec 14 and killed 26 people - 20 of them children aged 6 and 7 - with a semi-automatic assault rifle, Mr LaPierre added: "Does anybody really believe that the next Adam Lanza isn't planning his attack on a school he's already identified at this very moment?"