Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on Wednesday slammed the National Rifle Association's proposal to put an armed guard in every school in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, calling it a "completely dumbass idea."
"I guess, you know, out of last week's bizarre press statement -- it wasn't a press conference -- I guess Mr. [Wayne] LaPierre would then say firefighters need to have armed guards go with them," Nutter said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." I think it just shows that was a completely dumbass idea from the start with the announcement last week," he said.
Nutter was referring to the briefing held Friday by LaPierre, the NRA's vice president, in which he called for armed guards at every school in the wake of the Newtown tragedy. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said.
"We need to ban assault weapons," Nutter said Wednesday. "We need to ban the high-capacity clips and magazines. We need serious background information, system upgrade."
Nutter is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a gun control advocacy group co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. The NRA once called for Nutter's arrest on the grounds of "official oppression" after he signed a gun control measure.
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