The National Rifle Association today said that all U.S. schools should employ armed guards in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings. Parents, said executive VP Wayne LaPierre, would take comfort knowing that a good guy with a gun in a school is just a minute away from the next attack from a bad guy.

In an anticipated press conference in Washington, D.C., that was interrupted twice by protests, LaPierre expressed grief for the Newtown slaughter of children, which he called an “unspeakable crime,” but lashed out at media's ignorance of guns and said "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Lapierre
LaPierre interrupted by a protester today.
LaPierre did not take questions from the press at the event but NRA president David Keene said its staff would answer press inquiries next week. LaPierre is scheduled to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

LaPierre, who said kids see an average of 16,000 murders by age 18, ripped violent video games and films, displaying an online game called "Kindergarten Killers" on monitors during the press conference. He called such violent media the "filthiest form of pornography."

LaPierre said media "demonize" gun owners and criticized incorrect reporting about semiautomatic firearms being "machine guns," adding that media "perpetuate" the "dangerous notion" that "one more gun ban or law will protect us where 20,000 other laws have failed."

LaPierre lashed out at the “national media machine” that rewards killers with the wall-to-wall coverage that they so desperately crave.”

The media also “try to conceal” the “dirty little truth” about how violent video games, “blood-soaked” films and music that exalts murder contribute to the national mayhem. The media, in LaPierre’s words, are “silent enablers, complicit co-conspirators” to violence.

His speech was interrupted twice by protestors; one carried a banner that read, “NRA Killing Our Kids.”

LaPierre pitched a new NRA program called "National School Shield" to be led by former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), a former U.S. attorney and head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Hutchinson said his team will be independent and focused on developing a model school security plan to serve as a template for American schools.

LaPierre said politicians have passed laws for gun-free school zones, issued press releases and posted signs, which "tell every insane killer that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk." He said such areas are magnets for monsters and predators who are probably already planning their next attacks.

LaPierre added that armed guards are posted at banks, airports and sports stadiums, protection which should be extended to schools.