NRA Press Conference 2012: Group Wants Cops with Guns at Every School Following Sandy Hook Shooting

The National Rifle Association finally broke its silence Friday following the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School Dec. 14. Holding a national press conference to address the issue the group called for armed police officers to be posted in ever school in America in order to stop "the next Adam Lanza," the 20-year-old man responsible for the deadly shooting in Newtown, Conn.

The normally vocal NRA had fallen silent on its Twitter and Facebook accounts following the school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead in the second-deadliest school shooting ever.

Since news spread of the horrific event Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn. Friday, the NRA hadn't said a peep. The association's Facebook page -- which celebrated 1.7 million fans Thursday -- disappeared entirely, it made no mention of the shooting on its website, none of its leaders spoke out to the media to support the Second Amendment, and it quit posting on all three of its Twitter accounts.

Speaking to reporters, the group's top lobbyist, CEO and executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, said that the only answer to such events as Adam Lanza's rampage is more guns.

"The only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection," LaPierre said at the press conference in Washington, D.C. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

LaPierre went on to blame a traditional list of easy scapegoats that are inevitably mentioned as the catalyst for crimes as confounding and violent as Sandy Hook. The VP said "blood-soaked films" and "vicious, violent video games" are poisoning our culture, and said responsibility for the horrific event lies with lawmakers who created gun-free school zones and the "national media machine" for demonizing firearms and putting the nation's children at risk.

This lead directly into LaPierre's pitch for his school-guard proposal, called the "National School Shield" program.

"Because for all the noise and anger directed at us over the past week, no one, nobody has addressed the most important, pressing and immediate question we face: How do we protect our children right now, starting today, in a way that we know works?" LaPiere said.

"The only way to answer that question is to face the truth," LaPierre added.

"Politicians pass laws for gun-free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them. 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."

NRA officials refused to take questions from the media, however LaPierre addressed the press directly casting much of the blame for the Dec. 14 on the "national media machine" because it provides killers with "wall-to-wall attention and a sense of identity that they crave, while provoking others to try to make their mark."

He added that politicians who have recently called for stricter gun control, such as President Barack Obama, are unnecessarily politicizing the issue, and "have tried to exploit the tragedy for political gain."