White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested Friday that National Rifle Association (NRA) executive vice president Wayne LaPierre was hurting his own cause with his comments in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting.
"I think that Mr. LaPierre's public handling of the aftermath of Newtown has been amply analyzed and discussed and has not been particularly helpful for his cause or the more important cause, which is reducing gun violence in America, and I think that's an assessment that is widely held," Carney said in an interview with MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports."
During an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, LaPierre suggested universal background checks would be used to create a federal registry of gun owners and said supporters of gun restrictions believed they were "smarter" than Second Amendment advocates.
He also blasted Vice President Biden's suggestion that a shotgun would be as effective for protection as a so-called assault weapon like the one used in the Sandy Hook shooting.
"Have they lost their minds over at the White House?" LaPierre said. "You keep your advice, we'll keep our guns."
Carney said President Obama "believes we have to take steps to reduce gun violence — steps like closing loopholes in our background check system."
"I mean this is something that even the NRA, even Wayne Lapierre used to support," Carney said.
