US lobby issues point-blank 'no' on gun control

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The most powerful gun lobby in the United States ruled out Sunday any support for greater regulation of firearms or ammunition magazines in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.

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

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.

On Dec 14, a disturbed local man, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother in their Newtown, Connecticut home before embarking on a horrific shooting spree at a local elementary school.