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Critics compare NRA proposal for armed school guards to TSA
The National Rifle Association's (NRA) call for placing armed security guards in schools Friday was ridiculed by critics on Twitter as similar to the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
In the NRA's first news conference since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the gun lobby's Vice President Wayne LaPierre called for the creation of a "National Schools Shield" which he said "protect our children with the only positive line of defense that's tested and proven to work."
But critics reacting in real time on Twitter said the proposal was similar to the creation of the TSA after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"NRA 'shield' plan, if taken at all seriously, means TSA everywhere, forever," former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum tweeted during the NRA's news conference.
The TSA was created in 2002 by a Republican-led House and its creation was signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush. The agency has since emerged as a target of conservative fury as critics have argued that its airport security procedures violate airline passenger's privacy.
LaPierre cast his call for armed security guards at schools in starkly different terms Friday.
"Politicians pass laws for gun free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them," he said. "They post signs advertising them. And, in doing so, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre continued. "Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away or from a minute away?"
