In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre reiterated his organization's position that armed guards are the solution to school violence. Yesterday the NRA's televised news show, Cam & Company, shed light on what the NRA envisions when it calls for armed guards in all schools when it previewed a special on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's school defense “posse.”

The three-minute preview shows Sheriff Arpaio and a member of his self-styled “posse” discussing the workings of a group of armed volunteers who now patrol public school zones in Maricopa County, Arizona. While the NRA has called for school guards to be “an extraordinary corps of patriotic, trained, qualified citizens,” no mention was made in the NRA feature of a March 2012 investigation's finding that a number of “posse” members had violent criminal records.

As Arpaio explains in the NRA News segment, “posse” members have “gone through 100 hours of weapons training, plus follow-ups. They buy their own jeeps, airplanes, cars. I swear them in. The only difference is no money, they don't get paid.”

The preview also features an interview with “posse” member Jerry Johnson who says, “We're the eyes and ears of the sheriff's department. We're all volunteers. Some are ex-law enforcement, but me I'm retired. And some of us had no experience at all, but we've been trained,” and concludes the preview by stating, “We've got so well trained people that you put them in a situation and they're ready to roll.”

On March 14, 2012 Phoenix area CBS affiliate KPHO reported on “a number of posse members with arrests for assault, drug possession, domestic violence, sex crimes against children, disorderly conduct, impersonating an officer - and the list goes on.” In one incident described by KPHO a “posse” member “threw his girlfriend to the ground and choked her while trying to sexually assault her” and on another occasion a “posse” member held at gunpoint a man who had backed into his car and driven off.

Arpaio has previously drawn criticism for using his “posse” to investigate President Obama's long-form birth certificate, finding it fraudulent, and for promoting what the Justice Department termed “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos.”

The NRA preview also takes a hard line against gun violence prevention measures with Sheriff Arpaio stating that, “It is sad [politicians supportive of stronger gun laws] are using us for politics. They are going through the pony show, they talking to everybody, but we know the fix is in.”