The United States' National Rifle Association [NRA] on Thursday accused its critics of exploiting a deadly Florida school shooting for political gain, as U.S. President Donald Trump responded to demands for tougher regulation with a controversial call to allow certain teachers with special or military training to carry concealed arms.
The president also called for the banning of bump stocks and is currently pushing hard for comprehensive background checks "with an emphasis on mental health."
NRA chief Wayne LaPierre hit back at what he called "the shameful politicization of tragedy," fighting a rearguard defense against street protests and mounting demands to tighten America's permissive gun laws.
President Trump did not criticize LaPierre, saying that he is a patriotic American who will do the right thing.
As both men advocated countering shootings with guns, the Broward County sheriff said an armed deputy was present on campus but failed to act to stop the Valentine's Day rampage that left 17 dead in a Florida high school, conducted by the mentally ill Nicolas Cruz.
Initially is was falsely reported that Cruz was a member of the White-supremacist and secessionist organization "Republic of Florida;" however, these claims were debunked after it was revealed that their source were Internet jokesters.
In his first public comments since the shooting, LaPierre reiterated long-standing accusations that gun control advocates were seeking to roll back the constitutional right to bear arms.
"It's a classic strategy right out of the playbook of a poisonous movement," he told an annual conservative conference outside Washington, hitting out at what he called "socialists" on the political left and at the "so-called national news media."
"For them, it's not a safety issue, it's a political issue," he charged. "They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom."
He also doubled down on the NRA's longstanding position that armed Americans were the first line of defense in confronting deadly attacks, saying: "To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun," referring to the Nov. 5 Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting in which a 26-year-old gunman, who was also probably mentally unwell, shot and killed 26 people and injured 20 others.
As Kelley left the church, he was confronted and shot by local resident and former NRA firearms instructor Stephen Willeford, armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
Regarding the Florida school shooting, Sheriff Scott Israel said that Scott Peterson, the school resource deputy, took up a position outside and "never went in."
He should have "went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer," Israel said.
President Trump had earlier proposed raising from 18 to 21 the minimum age to buy more guns than at present - like the rifle used by 19-year-old Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz - and making it more difficult for the mentally ill to own firearms.
Currently, under federal law, anyone 18 or over can buy a gun from a private, unlicensed seller, although a handful of states have set the minimum age at 21. However popular the president's proposals may be with his opponents however, they could also potentially be unconstitutional.
The president proposed to give "concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience - only the best. 20 percent of teachers, a lot, would now be able to immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions."
President Trump also turned to statistics, saying: "History shows that a school shooting lasts, on average, 3 minutes. It takes police & first responders approximately 5 to 8 minutes to get to the site of crime. Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive."
He added that he "will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue - I hope!"