Armed guards at school will create more violent America: Mayor

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has lashed out at the US National Rifle Association's suggestion that armed guards should be stationed at schools to prevent shooting incidents, saying such a move will create a "more dangerous and violent" America where "no place is safe."

Bloomberg, who has long advocated the need to strengthen the nation's gun control laws, said the powerful gun lobby instead of "offering solutions to a problem they have helped create," are offering a "paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe."

A week after the tragic shooting in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, which killed 20 first-grade students and six adults, the National Rifle Association (NRA) in a press conference yesterday blamed violent video games, news media and poor law enforcement for the recent spurt in mass shootings across America.

The lobby did not blame guns or the easy availability of dangerous firearms on the shootings and instead floated the idea of arming guards at schools to prevent shootings.
NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in the news conference that his organisation would finance and develop a programme called the National Model School Shield Programme, which would work with schools to arm and train school guards.

The guards would include retired police officers and volunteers.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said.