NRA protest met with resistance by gun owner on Capitol Hill today

Hundreds of demonstrators swarmed the Capitol Hill office of the National Rifle Association on Monday to denounce the powerful lobby and push for new gun controls in response to Friday’s killing of 27 people, including 20 elementary school children, in Newtown, Conn.

Midway through the demonstration, a shouting match broke out between a gun owner and some protesters, and reporters and TV crews peeled off to cover it.

“Quite frankly, I’m tired of the argument being one-sided,” Larry Ward, 40, told reporters. “It breaks my heart what happened in Connecticut. . . . But the truth is, there is more than the gun-control answer for this problem.”

Ward, who said he works for a political media company, argued that the Newtown killings could have been stopped if a principal or teacher had been allowed to carry a concealed weapon.