National Rifle Assn

Calls for stricter weapons laws after the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school have gun enthusiasts scrambling to buy firearms before they're potentially restricted or banned outright. Brownells Inc., which claims to be the world's largest supplier of firearms accessories and gunsmithing tools, said it has sold 3 1/2 years worth of ammunition magazines in three days. Consumer demand has been “unprecedented” recently, according to a statement attributed to company President Pete Brownell on gun owner forum AR15.com . Police say Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle on Dec. 14, when he went on a shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn.

For years, the National Rifle Assn. has been telling us that guns don't kill people, people kill people. In the wake of the Newtown shootings, the group has added a twist. Guns don't kill people; television, film and video games do. Breaking its days-long silence, the NRA on Friday offered its solution to making American schools safer - armed guards - and laid the blame for the seemingly endless cycle of mass shootings on "a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.

The head lobbyist for the National Rifle Assn. said on Friday that Hollywood and video game companies must share the blame for last week's school shooting that took the lives of 20 schoolchildren and six educators. In addition to calling for armed guards at every American school, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief executive officer and executive vice president, singled out movies like "Natural Born Killers" and video games like "Grand Theft Auto" that  "shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society.

In the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., there is a lot of attention being focused on the issue of gun control. There are also rumblings about the role the entertainment -- movies, television and video games -- have played in coarsening our culture and desensitizing the country to violence. But just as the gun industry and the National Rifle Assn. like to divert the discussion away from new laws that could limit the availability of certain weapons, the entertainment industry is also often loathe to consider whether it has a contributing role in our culture of guns and violence.

WASHINGTON -- In an angry and defiant news conference, National Rifle Assn. Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre on Friday forcefully rejected calls to clamp down on guns in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, arguing instead for a massive deployment of armed guards to every school. LaPierre pledged that the NRA would spearhead such an endeavor, appointing former Arkansas Rep. Asa Hutchinson to lead an effort to develop a cutting-edge model school security plan and a program to train volunteers who would be dispatched to campuses around the country.

If you're thinking that last week's tragedy in Newtown, Conn., makes it likely that Congress will soon pass stricter federal gun laws, remember this: People thought the same thing in 2011, after a gunman shot into a Tucson crowd, killing six and injuring others, including Gabrielle Giffords, one of the House of Representatives' own members. Public support for gun control tends to swell after a mass shooting. But then, just as quickly, it tends to ebb, and opponents are happy to wait the process out. Tougher gun control laws face an array of obstacles.

I choked up repeatedly while watching and reading the stories about the slaughter of the innocents in Newtown, Conn., and, throughout the mournful weekend, I pondered the question raised by everyone from stricken parents to mayors and senators on the news talk shows: What will be done to prevent similar sick-minded gun rampages in the future? My early conclusion: Nothing. Narrow political interests and the perplexing nature of the crime make inaction nearly certain. This has proved true after the 15 other multiple-shooting rampages of 2012, and it has been the case with all the other terrible incidents in past years.

Pro-gun voices were scarce on Sunday's political talk shows, where the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. was virtually the only subject of conversation. It wasn't for lack of trying. NBC's “Meet the Press” featured an appearance by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the most outspoken gun control advocates in the country, who reiterated his call for action on the issue from President Obama. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein also stopped by the show and vowed to introduce an assault weapons ban on the first day of the new Congress.

Re "Gunman at Oregon mall kills 2 victims, then himself," Dec. 12 Does the National Rifle Assn. want us to believe this deranged man, who was using a holiday-packed mall as his shooting range, deserved 2nd Amendment protection? It's time the outrageously powerful NRA understood what our Founding Fathers had in mind regarding the meaning of a "well regulated militia. " Jerold Drucker Camarillo ALSO: Letters: Cheering on All Saints Church Letters: U.S.-funded violence in Congo Letters: When should government get involved?

If there's been another tragic mass shooting, there must be pundits all over the mediasphere ranting for or against tighter controls on guns. The arguments follow a predictable course: Advocates point out that gun violence in the United States, presumably because of its laws granting easy access to firearms, is far more common than in more restrictive countries, particularly in Europe. Opponents fire back that criminals will break the law to obtain guns if they want them -- after all, they're criminals, who feel no apparent remorse about mass slaughter.