Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association today mocked Vice President Joe Biden for his advice that women fire a shotgun two times in the air if faced by an attacker and suggested that the vice president and the White House have "lost their minds."

"The vice president of the United States also told women facing an attack to just empty their shotguns in the air," LaPierre, the executive vice president of the NRA, told the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting Maryland.

"Honestly, have they lost their minds over at the White House? No doubt the violent predators would love to face a woman with a shotgun that's empty.

"You keep your advice, we'll keep our guns," LaPierre said to applause.

Biden doled out the shotgun advice last month in an online forum with Parents magazine when he encouraged people to "Buy a shotgun" to protect themselves. But LaPierre gave a recommendation of his own today about how a woman should fend off a potential attack.

"The one thing a violent rapist deserves to face is a woman with a gun," LaPierre said.

LaPierre criticized the universal background-check plan, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week, calling it a "placebo" to which criminals won't submit, and argued that lawmakers' sole intention with the plan is to establish a national registry of guns.

"There are only two reasons for government to create that federal registry of gun owners, to tax them or to take them," LaPierre said. "Are they insane? What's the point of registering lawful gun owners anyways? So newspapers can print those names for gangs and criminals to access?"

The background-check plan, which was proposed by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will likely falter on the Senate floor unless language is softened so Republicans and moderate Democrats would be willing to sign onto the proposal.

LaPierre promoted the NRA's proposal to place armed officers in every school in the country and ridiculed a Department of Homeland Security video that suggests using objects like scissors when faced by an active shooter.

"Let's get this straight. To protect our children at school we recommend a trained professional with a gun. They recommend scissors. And they say we're crazy? It's shear madness," LaPierre said.

LaPierre today urged the conservative audience not to "be swayed by the winds of political insanity, and no matter what the elitists who scorn you say. Let them be damned."

"They can call me crazy or anything else they want, but NRA's 5 million members … will not back down, not ever, I promise you that," LaPierre said. "We will not be demonized, and we will not be silent."