LaPierre: Armed guards in every school

NASHVILLE, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- National Rifle Association Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre Thursday renewed his call for armed personnel in every school in America.

Speaking at the annual convention of the National Wild Turkey Federation in Nashville, LaPierre scolded President Obama for not mentioning school safety in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

LaPierre asserted while Obama said in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre "nothing matters more than the safety of our schoolchildren," the president failed to mention keeping schools safe in the first State of the Union address of his second term.

In the U.S. Capitol audience Tuesday were relatives of those killed in Newtown as well as former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who is recuperating from a bullet wound to the head from a shooting spree in 2011.

Obama said legislation that would prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals, banning military-style weapons and large capacity magazines "deserve a vote."

"If you want to vote no, that's your choice," Obama said. "But these proposals deserve a vote."

LaPierre accused Obama of a "level of public deception that simply cannot be ignored" and alleged the president plans to institute "bans on millions of standard shotguns and standard magazines" and transfers of weapons "even between family members." He said Obama's plans would culminate in the "national registration of every single gun owner in this country."

He reiterated the NRA's call for a "School Shield Safety Program" that would put "armed police and security officers in every single school in America."

Obama and his Democratic allies "only care about their decades-long" crusade to "destroy the Second Amendment" and to "ban every gun they can, tax every gun sold and register every American gun owner," LaPierre said.