LaPierre: 'Elite' firearms focus is misplaced

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre on Sunday slammed "elite" focus on firearms in the wake of last week's Navy Yard shooting, saying there are bigger issues in play, including the need for more secure military facilities.

"The whole country...knows the problem was there weren't enough good guys with guns," LaPierre said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "When the good guys with guns got there, it stopped."

LaPierre said politicians and the media wrongly turned back to the gun control issue following the deadly shooting near the Capitol, when instead the country should emphasize reforming the mental health system and enforcing laws already on the books.

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"All the outrage...the first two days, of elite media and the politicians trying to stir this toward firearms, the outrage ought to be placed on an unprotected naval base," he said. "On a criminal justice system in Chicago that doesn't even enforce the federal gun laws when we could dramatically cut violence, on a mental health system that is completely broken, on a check system that is a complete joke in terms of stopping the bad guys," and a broken criminal justice system.

He said that Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, as well as several other perpetrators of gun crimes, were able to skirt current background check laws, some of which he noted the NRA initially supported. The mental health system is partly at fault, he said, saying people like Alexis, who have offered warning signs, "need to be committed, is what they need to be, and if they're committed they're not at the Naval Yard."

"So the Aurora shooter in Colorado gets checked, and is cleared," he said. "The Tucson shooter gets checked and gets cleared. Aaron Alexis goes through the federal and state check and gets cleared."