Retiring Rep. Ron Paul becomes first Republican to rip NRA’s plan for armed guards at schools, saying that it would create 'Orwellian surveillance state'



Outgoing Republican Congressman Ron Paul from Texas took on the National Rifle Association this week, arguing that the gun lobby's recent proposal to place armed guards at every U.S. school is 'just another kind of violence.'

In a statement released on Monday, the uncompromising libertarian lawmaker said that the federal government should not try to 'pursue unobtainable safety' and claimed that Democrats and Republicans have 'zero moral authority to legislate against violence.'

‘This is the world of government provided “security,” a world far too many Americans now seem to accept or even endorse,’ the 77-year-old congressman wrote on his website. ‘School shootings, no matter how horrific, do not justify creating an Orwellian surveillance state in America.’

Scroll down to read Rep. Ron Paul's full statement



Against the grain: Texas Rep. Ron Paul, left, released a statement criticizing a plan unveiled by top NRA official Wayne LaPierre, right, to have the federal government place armed guards outside every school



Controversial: Paul wrote on his website that school shootings do not justify creating a totalitarian security state while in pursuit of a false sense of safety

Paul, who is retiring from Congress next week, is the first Republican to publicly criticize the NRA's proposal, which was unveiled last Friday in the aftermath of the Newtown, Connection, school massacre that took the lives of 26 people, among them 20 children, Fox News reported.

Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the powerful gun lobby, pushed for federal funding needed to revamp the nation’s school security, with the idea of posting armed guards outside every school as a centerpiece of the plan.

‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,’ LaPierre said during a press conference in Washington DC.

The famously independent-minded congressman, however, forcefully disagreed with the NRA’s approach to the problem of gun violence.

‘While I certainly agree that more guns equals less crime and that private gun ownership prevents many shootings, I don't agree that conservatives and libertarians should view government legislation, especially at the federal level, as the solution to violence,’ the veteran lawmaker noted.



Parting shot: Paul, who is retiring from Congress after nearly two decades of public service, also chided Democrats for calling on lawmakers to tighten gun restrictions

Paul unfavorably compared the plan to airport security procedures, wondering whether Americans really want to live in a world of police checkpoints, surveillance cameras, X-ray scanners and warrantless physical searches.

The congressman also chided people in the left who have been demanding that lawmakers tighten gun restrictions. The lawmaker insisted that new laws will do nothing to prevent a mentally ill person from opening fire.

Point man: President Obama asked VP Joe Biden to head a special task force meant to come up with concrete ideas to reduce gun violence

Paul suggested that real change can happen only when the U.S. makes a commitment to rebuilding civil society based on family, religion and free market, not through passing new, increasingly restrictive laws.

Describing the calls for more gun control 'understandable, but misguided,' Paul wrote that the government is incapable of creating a world without risks.

‘Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives,’ h wrote. ‘ We shouldn’t settle for substituting one type of violence for another.’

The statement from the outgoing Texas representatives comes just days after President Obama asked Vice President Joe Biden to head a task force aimed at coming up with concrete solutions to the growing problem of gun-related crime, according to CBS News .

In response to the growing pressure from his base, Obama insisted that he wants to have actionable recommendations on his desk as early as January.

Many believe that in the wake of the tragedy, the Congress move to reinstate the controversial Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004 a decade after its passage.

Meantime, NRA President David Keene told CBS's Face the Nation Sunday that his organization will continue to oppose the ban on assault weapons used for ‘perfectly legitimate purposes.’