Arizona sheriffs and the state’s attorney general are pushing controversial programs to allow school officials and volunteers to carry guns in the wake of the shootings at a Connecticut school that left 20 children dead.

The latest proposal comes from Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-described toughest sheriff in America, who wants to station his “posse” of volunteers outside of about 50 schools in Maricopa County within a week, according to KPNX, a local NBC station.

“Everybody else is talking about what their ideas are. They want new laws. This is immediate. I don't need a new law to send out my posse,” he told NBC affiliate, KPNX, on Thursday. “I feel like we should do whatever we can outside of the schools.”

Arpaio’s volunteers number about 3,000, with 300 to 400 carrying weapons. They log about 100 hours of training and undergo background checks, just like deputies, according to KPNX.

He first sent out his posse in 1993 to guard malls over the holiday season because of violence at those venues in the past. He believed that program worked, saying there have been zero violent re-occurrences, azfamily.com reported.

Arpaio’s plan follows similar ones released earlier this week: Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has proposed arming willing principals, according to ABC15.com, while Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said he wanted to arm a designated employee in every school, KPNX reported.

“Why not use these people we trust if they are willing to protect themselves and our children?” Babeu said.

Horne said a few counties have indicated they’d like to sign up for his program, though state law currently prohibits having firearms on public school campuses. Horne said he already has a sponsor for the necessary state legislation to implement his plan.

Anti-gun advocates and former educators denounced the idea of arming school staffers. Geraldine Hills, of Arizonans for Gun Safety, called it “outrageous.”

“Cops aren’t teachers, teachers aren’t cops,” she told KPNX. “It’s a very nice what-if scenario, this fantasy of the armed civilian hero. It doesn’t play out in real life.”

“I don’t feel that I would want to be in a position of being responsible for either a concealed weapon or securing a weapon on campus,” Gregg Baumgarten, a former principle outside of Phoenix, told the station. “I just think it’s a recipe for disaster.”

The Arizona officials’ stance echoed that of the National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre, who said he supported putting armed guards and police in schools in response to the Newtown shootings in which the gunman, Adam Lanza, also shot six administrators dead. Police say Lanza shot his mother to death earlier at their home.

“If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre told NBC’s David Gregory. “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that.”

Some districts said they were preparing to take LaPierre’s recommended action, while other educators cautioned that doing so would send the wrong message about education.

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Gun-control advocates responded with outrage and disbelief Friday after the National Rifle Association called for armed guards in every school and blamed music, movies and video games for firearms violence.

While some people in Newtown, Conn., said they supported the idea of police with guns in their schools, critics said a volunteer force was impractical at best, dangerous at worst.

"The last thing we need are the George Zimmermans of the world patrolling our schools," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, referring to the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in Florida.

The slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week has prompted some gun-rights advocates to soften their position, and there was speculation that the NRA might put forth some type of concession.

But NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre -- who will appear Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" -- did not indicate the group would support new restrictions.

Defiant NRA leader rejects gun controls, asks to put police in schools

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,'' he said, roughly outlining plans for an NRA-sponsored program to train and certify volunteers to protect schools from "the next Adam Lanza."

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he was at a loss for words after hearing the proposal.

"I don’t even know where to begin," he said on msnbc. "As a supporter of the Second Amendment and a supporter of the NRA — even though I’m not a member of the NRA — I just found it very haunting and very disturbing that our country now is talking about arming our teachers and our principals in classrooms."

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., said he was stunned by LaPierre's comments.

"It is beyond belief that following the Newtown tragedy, the National Rifle Association's leaders want to fill our communities with guns and arm more Americans," he said in a statement.

"The NRA points the finger of blame everywhere and anywhere it can, but they cannot escape the devastating effects of their reckless comments and irresponsible lobbying tactics.  The NRA leadership is wildly out of touch with its own members, responsible gun owners, and the American public who want to close dangerous loopholes and enact common-sense gun safety reform."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the press conference "a shameful evasion" of the gun crisis, devoid of soul-searching.

"They offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe," he said.

In Newtown, where funerals for the Sandy Hook victims were still going on, opinion was divided.

"I think that's a great idea," Elaine Bartell said of LaPierre's armed-guard proposal. "I would feel much safer, and children would be protected."

Mary Fernandes, a mother, said an increase in guns is the last thing schools need.

"I think it's sad that it's come to this state. We need do something about the gun control and I don't think that [armed guards] is the answer," she said. "I don't believe people need guns in their homes."

Some gun control advocates target ammo clips

Dennis van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, told NBC News the idea “that there be a policeman in every building” deserves to be part of a wide-ranging discussion about how to protect schoolchildren from bullets, but he scoffed at LaPierre’s call for volunteers packing heat.

“We have 90,000 [school] buildings in America, and you want to volunteers to come and have a gun at the school?” he said, noting that many schools already have armed safety officers. “When somebody has an assault rifle and blows out a window with it, you can’t stop that.”

Gun-rights advocates said LaPierre struck the right tone in his hotly anticipated announcement – the powerful lobbying group’s first comments since the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Robert Farago, publisher of a popular blog called TheTruthAboutGuns.com, said he did "a good job putting forth a positive solution to the problem of spree killing in schools."

He was disappointed, however, that LaPierre did not explicitly say the NRA would fight any proposed assault-weapons ban. And he thought LaPierre's criticism of video games and movies was off-target.

"I think the effect of the culture isn't the determining effect in an attack like this," Farago said.

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Dave Workman, senior editor of The Gun Mag, a publication owned by the Second Amendment Foundation, said the NRA news conference “just ramps up the attention to gun-free zones.”

“We’ve had shootings in shopping malls, movie theaters, schools, colleges – all gun-free zones – so maybe it’s time to take a look at that,” Workman said.

“The prevailing wisdom with a lot of the gun owners is -- it’s about time we started talking about something other than banning guns.”

For Dave Hoover, whose nephew A.J. Boik was killed in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre, the time for talk is over.

“Nobody wants to come in and take your gun away from you, but I don't think it's too much for us to ask that if I'm an individual who has lost their mind and wants to go wreak havoc in a mall or at a church or at a theater -- for the love of God we should be able to stop that,” Hoover told NBC affiliate KUSA.

“We need to stop having these discussions about it, get down to work, roll up our sleeves and accomplish something.”

While LaPierre was still talking, Twitter lit up with reaction.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence instantly asked  for donations to support its efforts to ban assault weapons and limit the number of guns that can be bought at one time.

"To all #NRA members who believe like we do, that we are better than this, we send this message … Join us," tweeted the group, which was formed after Jim Brady was shot with President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Businessman Mark Cuban, who owns a movie distribution company and a chain of cinemas, wrote this on his verified Twitter account: "I think the NRA press conference is what the Mayans had in mind when they said the world would come to an end today."

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Christian Gooden / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP

Top NRA executive Wayne LaPierre Jr.
speaks at the gun-rights organization's annual meeting in St. Louis on Saturday.

ST. LOUIS -- A top National Rifle Association official on Saturday accused the media of sensationalizing the Trayvon Martin case and ignoring other crimes that happen across the country every day.

Speaking at the NRA’s annual meeting, Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre didn't mention the Martin case by name during his speech. But he accused the media of "sensational” reporting from Florida and criticized coverage of gun issues in general.

"Everyday victims aren't celebrities. They don't draw ratings, don't draw sponsors. But sensational reporting from Florida does. In the aftermath of one of Florida's many daily tragedies, my phone has been ringing off the hook" with calls from reporters, he said.

LaPierre listed several killings in cities across the country, including one in St. Louis this week, that he said have been ignored as the media focused on the Martin case.

"You reporters, you don't care about those people," he said of the other victims.

The Trayvon Martin case has focused national attention on so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws in a number of states that provide broader grounds to claim a shooting was in self-defense.

Police in Florida initially declined to arrest George Zimmerman, the man who shot Martin, citing the state's law allowing the use of deadly force when a person feels threatened. A special prosecutor earlier this week charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder.

Poll: Most support NRA but also back gun limits

The NRA has been the chief backer of Stand Your Ground laws. Versions of these laws, also referred to as the "Castle Doctrine" because they allow citizens to use force protect their homes, are in effect in 30 states including Florida.

At the NRA annual meeting on Saturday, the organization celebrated its success in passing the laws, showing a video to the membership of a young mother in Oklahoma, Sarah McKinley, who shot dead a knife-wielding home invader on New Year's Eve.

Authorities decided not to charge her, citing the state's law allowing the use of force in self-defense.

"We always as members of the NRA Stand our Ground," LaPierre said.

Judge cites possible conflict of interest in Zimmerman case

Some gun-control advocates have seized on the Martin shooting to renew debate about guns. Officials with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence have pledged to use the case to fight proposed federal legislation that would force states with strict gun laws to recognize concealed weapons permits granted in other states that have fewer requirements.

"George Zimmerman is the NRA," the group's president, Dan Gross, said in a statement earlier this week. "And Florida's 'Shoot First, Ask Questions Later' law and the paranoid mentality it promotes are products of the NRA's vision for America, where just about anybody can get and use a gun just about anywhere."

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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