国际英语新闻:U.S. gun rights group chief refuses to embrace new gun control legislation

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- A high-ranking official of the largest gun-rights organization in the United States, the National Rifle Association, on Sunday refused to support new gun-control legislation, but insisted the group's push for putting armed guards in schools in response to the Dec.14 school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

Wayne LaPierre, CEO and executive vice president of National Rifle Association, made his opinions known in an interview on Meet the Press of the National Broadcasting Corporation Sunday.

LaPierre said a bill trying to reintroduce the federal ban on assault weapons would be "a phony piece of legislation" which he predicted would not become law.

"I know there's a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens," he said, insisting armed guards should have been able to stop the killers.

"If it's crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre said.

LaPierre's appearance on NBC followed the group's first official response Friday to the mass shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 26 people in a shooting rampage, including 20 children aged 6 to 7 before committing suicide. The powerful U.S. gun lobby called for armed guards for every school in the country, as the response of the gun industry.

LaPierre said at the Washington press conference Friday that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is "a good guy with a gun," and called on Congress to appropriate enough funds to post an armed guard at every school in the nation. He also blamed video games, the news media and lax law enforcement as culprits for mass shootings, saying they were purveying images of violence.

President Barack Obama "strongly" supports the renewal of the assault weapons ban and would back new gun legislation, the White House said at a daily briefing Tuesday.

California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democrat and leading liberal voice in the Senate, said that she would reintroduce a federal ban on assault weapons on the first day of the coming Congress.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday convened the first meeting of the White House's gun-control working group, bringing together law enforcement officials and Cabinet secretaries. Biden said there was "no reason" why an updated assault weapons ban could not pass Congress.