Leaders of the National Rifle Association are accusing gun control advocates of exploiting the deadly Florida school shooting, striking a defiant tone amid a renewed debate over guns and school safety.
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, in his first public comments since the shooting in Parkland, Florida, issued a searing indictment of gun control proponents for attempting to "exploit tragedy for political gain."
"The elites' ... goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms," LaPierre LaPierre said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, near the nation's capital.
"They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom."
LaPierre addressed the conservative activists shortly before President Donald Trump held a listening session with state and local leaders on gun safety at the White House.
The president said he had spoken to NRA leaders and expressed optimism that the nation's most prominent gun-owners organisation would support his calls for raising the federal minimum age for buying or possessing certain weapons, enhancing background checks, addressing mental illness and banning the sale of bump stock devices.
NRA leaders did not address whether the federal government should raise the minimum age for young adults to buy weapons. A day earlier, the organisation issued a statement saying it opposes raising the age limit.
"Evil walks among us and God help us if we don't harden our schools and protect our kids," LaPierre said. "The whole idea from some of our opponents that armed security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous."
LaPierre also assailed the FBI for failing to follow up on warnings about the school shooter.
Australian Associated Press
