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The chairman of the National Rifle Association-funded National School Shield Task Force on Sunday shrugged off traditional talking points used by pro-gun lobbyists and insisted that requiring background checks at gun shows "would seem appropriate."

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday asked Asa Hutchinson if he could support background checks for all commercial sales, including closing loopholes on Internet and gun show sales.

"From my view, if you go to a gun show and you buy a firearm from a licensed dealer and you have the background check you also go out to somebody's vehicle and you get a firearm there and you purchase it and you don't have the check, there's some inconsistency there," Hutchinson explained. "And certainly from my personal standpoint, that's a fair debate. And again, Americans would like to see that."

"You're saying you would support expanding the background check to include non-dealer sales gun shows and also, for instance, sales on the Internet?" Wallace pressed.

"I can't speak to all of those because it's all in the fine print," Hutchinson replied. "You have to look at the language. I would look certainly at the gun shows and the sales that surround that in that environment. If we can make sure there's a comprehensive check and we keep criminals from obtaining guns in that environment then those checks would seem appropriate."

As late as last month, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said that his organization opposed background checks at gun because they were a "dishonest premise" that only acted as a "speed bump for the law abiding."

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Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday became angry and shouted at CNN host Candy Crowley over the notion that people who receive guns as gifts would have to undergo background checks.

In an interview on CNN's State of the Union, Crowley asked Graham if he would be willing to support a Democratic bill to close the gun show loophole and require background checks for private sales.

"Would you filibuster that?" Crowley wondered.

"No, if get an alternative to it," Graham replied. "I would vote against it. This idea that private individuals transferring their weapons and having to go through a background check makes no sense. Before you'd expand a background check, there are 76,000 people last year who failed a background check. And less than 1 percent got prosecuted."

Crowley noted that a recent CBS News poll found that 96 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans supported universal background checks.

"Well, if you ask the question, should a father have to do a background check when they their son a gun for Christmas, most people would say that's not necessary," the senior South Carolina senator insisted.

"This is a little different," Crowley pointed out. "This is about just if you go to a gun show."

"No, that's what the bill does!" Graham exclaimed. "The bill requires private individual transfers to through the federal system! The current system broken. I hope most Americans understand that 80,000 people last year failed a background check and only 66 got prosecuted. Why in the world would you expand that system -- if you're not enforcing the law the exists today -- to include private transfers?"

"So, I think that legislation is going nowhere."

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Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on Sunday said that Republicans would block any effort to extend background checks to include private firearms sales unless Congress agreed to "eliminate the recordkeeping" on guns in the United States.

Coburn, who is one of four senators working for a bipartisan bill to expand background checks, recently refused to comment to The Washington Post about his position on keeping records on private sales, saying that "I don’t negotiate through the press."

But on Sunday, the Oklahoma senator drew a line in the sand.

"I don't think we're that close to a deal, and there absolutely will not be recordkeeping on legitimate law-abiding gun owners in this country," Coburn insisted. "And if they want to eliminate the benefits of trying to prevent the sales to people who are actually mentally ill and the criminals, all they have to do is create a recordkeeping. And that will kill this bill."

"So if you really want to improve it, you have to eliminate the recordkeeping and give people the right and the responsibility to do the right thing. And that's check on the [National Instant Criminal Background Check System] NICS list to make sure you're not selling a gun to somebody who's in one of those two categories."

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Conservative columnist Ann Coulter is telling President Barack Obama, "Screw you!" because she says that his plan implement universal background checks for all gun purchases "means universal confiscation, universal extermination."

Following Obama's Monday speech in Minnesota calling on Congress to implement "real and lasting change" on gun control, Fox News host Sean Hannity blasted "The Anointed One" for being concerned with "accepting gay scout masters, gay marriage, gun control, watering down welfare requirements, abortion rights, war on women."

"Connecticut, Aurora, Tucson, these are crazy people," Coulter ranted in agreement. "That is the problem. Everything they are telling you about what they can do about guns is lie. The problem with universal background checks is we basically have universal backgrounds check now. Any licensed gun dealer is performing a background check."

"The only way to enforce a universal -- the last 0.1 percent of guns that are transferred by collectors and so on is to have universal gun registration," she added. "Universal background check means universal registration, universal registration means universal confiscation, universal extermination. That is how it goes in history. Do not fall for universal background checks."

In fact, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence estimates that about 40 percent of gun purchasers do not go through background checks, but opponents of gun control dispute this claim.

"If Obama talks about gay rights, if Obama talks about guns, immigration and climate control, then the media race to every Republican, 'What do you think about what Obama said?,' and we don't focus on the economy," Hannity opined.

Coulter replied: "Not only that, just to follow up on your point right there, it's just that they are talking about it, they must demonize people that are legal gun owners and, 'Obama, look at him. He cares about the children.'"

"Screw you!" she exclaimed. "You think we don't care about the children? You're the one who won't do anything about the mentally ill."

(h/t: Mediaite)

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New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Sunday asserted that the National Rifle Association (NRA) had been "revealed as an insane organization" that "has this vision that we're living in a Mad Max movie" because it wants to put more guns in schools instead of supporting universal background checks and limits on military-style weapons.

During a panel segment on ABC, former Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said she supported universal background checks and a ban on high-capacity magazines, but "both sides have overplayed" their arguments on gun control after the December massacre of 20 school children in Newtown, Connecticut.

"We've gotten glimpse into the mindset of the pro-gun people," Krugman observed. "And we've seen certainly with [NRA CEO] Wayne LaPierre and some of these others, it's bizarre, they have this vision that we're living in a Mad Max movie and that nothing can be done about it, that America cannot manage unless everybody's prepared to shoot intruders, that the idea that we have a police force that provides public safety is somehow totally impractical, despite the fact that that is in fact the way we live."

"Now the craziness of the pro-gun lobby has been revealed," he added. "And that has got to move the debate and got to move legislation, at least to some degree."

But Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta said that he was comfortable with the NRA's opposition to universal background checks because the idea was a "perfect example of why Washington is broke."

"I know people will get guns no matter what laws we pass, just like the illegal drugs," Barletta argued.

"I just caught you on a false statement there," Krugman interrupted. "Because at least I do believe that guns are the root. There are crazy people everywhere, but mass murders are a lot more common here... I looked at the international differences, and countries that have effective gun control have a lot fewer incidents."

"Will banning a spoon stop obesity? Of course not," Barletta quipped.

"There are plenty of gun owners that are fine, but the NRA is now revealed as an insane organization," Krugman pointed out. "And that matters quite a lot."

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The CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA) says that the American public should not trust President Barack Obama's push for new gun control laws because the administration lied about "Obamacare" being a tax and a universal background check would just be a "check on law-abiding people."

"It's a fraud to call it universal," the NRA's LaPierre told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. "It's never going to be universal, the criminals aren't going to comply with it, they could care less."

"We ought to quit calling it right now a universal check, the real title ought to be the check on law-abiding people all over this country," he insisted.

LaPierre showed Wallace a flyer from Obama's 2012 campaign which he claimed said that the president was "not going to take away your rifle, shotgun, handgun."

"And now he's trying to take away all three!" he declared.

"He's not taking away shotguns," Wallace pointed out.

"Have you looked at the Feinstein [assault weapons ban] bill that he supported?" LaPierre shot back. "That's exactly what it does. I think that what they'll do is they'll turn this universal check on the law abiding into a universal registry of law-abiding people. And law-abiding people don't want that."

Wallace, however, argued that "there's nothing that anyone in the administration's said that indicates they're going to have a universal registry."

"And Obamacare wasn't a tax until they needed it to be tax," LaPierre quipped. "I mean, I don't think you can trust these [people]."

"It was the Supreme Court that said that," the Fox News host said. "One of the things that concerns people is we talk about a shootings and often times mass shootings day after day after day. And the frustration is you don't think that answering -- that limiting guns has anything to do with that."