NRA: White House Meeting 'Had Nothing To Do With Keeping Our Children Safe'

WASHINGTON—The nation's largest gun-rights lobby says its meeting at the White House was more about demonizing the Second Amendment than about keeping students safe.

The National Rifle Association met with Vice President Joe Biden's school safety study group on Thursday and afterward said the participants spent most their time on proposals to limit gun rights. The NRA says it, quote, "will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen."

The politically powerful group—under public pressure since December's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman massacred 20 children and six women—says it will now work with Congress to discuss what works in preventing violence and what does not.

The NRA previously proposed armed security in every American school.

Read the NRA's full statement below:

Fairfax, Va. – The National Rifle Association of America is made up of over 4 million moms and dads, daughters and sons, who are involved in the national conversation about how to prevent a tragedy like Newtown from ever happening again. We attended today's White House meeting to discuss how to keep our children safe and were prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals.

We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. While claiming that no policy proposals would be “prejudged,” this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans. It is unfortunate that this Administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems. We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen. Instead, we will now take our commitment and meaningful contributions to members of congress of both parties who are interested in having an honest conversation about what works - and what does not.