NRA rejects notion that most members support background checks

National Rifle Association President David Keene listens (at right) as NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre (left) sits at the witness table on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 30, 2013, during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence. (AP / Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association's executive vice-president continued to oppose background checks for all gun purchases despite polls indicating that most members of the influential gun rights lobbying group don't share his position.

The NRA's Wayne LaPierre said on "Fox News Sunday" that background checks for all gun purchases would lead to a national registry of gun owners. Critics say such a registry could lead to taxes on guns or to confiscation.

Mark Kelly, a gun owner and husband of Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who survived a 2011 mass shooting, asked LaPierre to listen to his members. He said the current system prevented 1.7 million gun purchases since 1999. However, those potential buyers had other options because many gun sales don't require a background check.

"Members of the NRA tend to be very reasonable on this issue," said Kelly, who also appeared on the Fox show.

As Congress responds to the spate of mass shootings in recent years, most notably the December massacre of 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, President Barack Obama and some lawmakers are calling for a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons and on high-capacity ammunition magazines. However, calls for expanding background checks appear to have gained the most bipartisan support.

LaPierre said that requiring checks for all gun purchases would be a bureaucratic nightmare.

"It's going to affect only the law-abiding people," he said. "Criminals could care less.

LaPierre was pressed about his contention that gun checks would lead to a national registry, when no one from the Obama administration is calling for that.

"And Obamacare wasn't a tax until they needed it to be a tax," LaPierre said, referring to the president's health care overhaul.

Kelly and LaPierre agreed on one point: More people seeking to buy guns illegally should be prosecuted.

"They should be prosecuted and there should be stiff penalties," Kelly said.

A key player in the coming gun debate in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said on ABC's "This Week" that he's willing to take a look at legislation that would ban certain semi-automatic weapons, but he also noted that he voted against a ban on such weapons in 1994 because it "didn't make sense."

He was more definitive on the issue of background checks, saying "everyone acknowledges we should do something with background checks."

Reid said his goal is for the Judiciary Committee to report out a gun bill. Senators could subsequently seek amendments on the Senate floor. That way, if the bill didn't contain certain provisions, such as the ban on certain weapons, then sponsors would at least get a vote on their proposal and lawmakers would have to go on the record about where they stand.