In a phone interview from Texas, Cotton emphasised that his comments were made not in his capacity as an NRA board member, but as a private citizen who runs a gun discussion forum. "It was a discussion we were having about so called gun-free zones," he said when asked about his remarks. "It's my opinion that there should not be any gun-free zones in schools or churches or anywhere else. If we look at mass shootings that occur, most happen in gun-free zones."

National Rifle Association members hold hands during the opening prayer at the annual meeting of members at the NRA convention on April 11 in Nashville, Tennessee. Credit:AP

If private citizens were allowed to carry guns everywhere, Cotton says, there will be fewer mass shootings because potential shooters would not be able to target gun-free areas. And if they did, "if armed citizens are in there, they have a chance to defend themselves and other citizens."

Reached by phone, an NRA spokesman said that "individual board members do not speak for the NRA and do not have the authority to speak for the NRA."

From a gun rights perspective, these are common arguments: the NRA has long maintained that the solution to gun crime is more guns, not less. In response to the mass killing of school children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre argued that "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun." He went on to propose putting an armed police officer in every school in America.