The nation's largest gun-rights lobby is calling for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings."
The National Rifle Association broke its silence Friday on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead.
The group's top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said at a Washington news conference that, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
Pawleys Island resident Darryl Hammond is a gun owner and agreed with NRA's position.
"You know if you look at World War II, the only reason Japan didn't invade the mainland United States was because they knew every American had a gun. We have the largest Army in the world in two or three states with gun hunters," he explained. "Certain teachers that are trained should be able to carry a concealed firearm and that way if someone wants to go to a school, they know they're going to have some opposition. As it is at present time they know there's no one at a school with a gun, so there's nothing to keep them from going. It's easy prey."
But not everyone is taking the side of the pro-gun organization.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the NRA's call for armed guards in schools represents a paranoid vision of America.
Bloomberg has long called for stricter gun control laws. He said Friday's press conference by the nation's largest gun lobby group was "a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country."
Bloomberg says the NRA lobbyists blame "everyone but themselves" for the crisis of gun violence. He says America must rise above and demand Congress and President Barack Obama work on reasonable gun restrictions.
Godfrey Gibbison of Charleston takes the same position.
"There are certain types of guns that obviously should not be in the hands of the public. Most people don't need them. You don't need an assault rifle if you're going to hunt a deer," said Gibbison.
In response to the suggestions of having an armed guard at schools Gibbison added, "It doesn't make any sense. It basically says we should be armed to the teeth and then all of a sudden we're going to go out having people shooting each other saying, 'Oh I thought I was going to be attacked, so I shot first.' It's a slippery slope."
The NRA also blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture.
As for the rising level of violence in the U.S., Hammond offered his opinion. "We're a violent people, I mean you look how we got what we have. We didn't buy these lands, we took them from other people. It's just the Americans."
The Associated Press contributed to this report
