The most powerful gun lobby in the United States stood firm on Monday against any additional restraints on firearms and ammunition sales - despite a national outcry in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.

Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association, said on Sunday that planned legislation to outlaw military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines was "phony" and would not work.

He repeated the NRA's call to place an armed guard in every school and argued that prosecuting criminals and fixing the mental health system, rather than gun control, were the solutions to America's mass shooting epidemic.