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National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre defended his organization鈥檚 controversial ad mentioning President Obama鈥檚 daughters during an appearance Thursday on NBC鈥檚 鈥淭oday.鈥�

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 about the president鈥檚 daughters,鈥� Mr. LaPierre said at the end of a segment otherwise devoted to the NRA鈥檚 views on the president鈥檚 gun-control proposals. 鈥淲hat it is about is how to keep children safe.鈥�

Well, in a narrow sense that assertion might be a tough sell. As we discussed Wednesday, the 30-second, online ad that鈥檚 roiled Washington begins with the words, 鈥淎re the president鈥檚 kids more important yours?鈥�

It goes on to charge that Mr. Obama is an 鈥渆litist hypocrite鈥� because he鈥檚 skeptical of the NRA鈥檚 proposal for more armed guards at schools, yet Sasha and Malia are themselves protected by armed guards.

It ends with a graphic of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) of California, and NBC鈥檚 David Gregory protected by two armed guys in SWAT gear.

鈥淧rotection for their kids and gun-free zones for ours,鈥� it intones.

However, there is a longer cut of this ad that surrounds the presidential-children reference with more material, so maybe LaPierre was talking about that.

This 4-1/2-minute version starts by talking about how banks, the White House, and Capitol Hill are all protected by armed guards. Then it expends quite a bit of time on media folks decrying the NRA鈥檚 armed-guard-in-every-school proposal. At one point, somebody even charges the group is on 鈥淧lanet Bizarro.鈥�

Then it abruptly switches tone. 鈥淭he media speaks for elites. America speaks for itself,鈥� flashes on-screen. Then it begins referring to a number of state programs that finance and place school guards.

The daughters appear at about the three-minute mark. The ad references a story from the conservative website Breitbart.com that asserts that Mr. Gregory鈥檚 children go to a school with armed guards. (Gregory has drawn the NRA鈥檚 ire for what it deems his antigun questioning.) Then the ad says the school that Obama鈥檚 daughters attend has 11 armed guards.

The word 鈥淗YPOCRITES鈥� then appears on-screen.

We鈥檝e got a couple of comments about all this, unsurprisingly. The first is that the NRA is trying to back away from the president鈥檚 daughters thing without having to actually appear to be retreating. The second is that the real ire they express is in the word 鈥渆lites.鈥� They have probably poll-tested and found that this word raises emotions among many gun owners and causes them to give the organization more money and political support.

Third, it looks like the presidential daughters part of the ad is based on wrong information.

It鈥檚 true that the Secret Service protects the president鈥檚 family. That鈥檚 US law, due to the fact that first families are the subject of constant, specific, credible death threats.

But the president鈥檚 daughters go to Sidwell Friends in upper northwest Washington, and there are not 11 armed guards there. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler proves this pretty conclusively Thursday in his column.

The school has 11 people in its security department. None of them carry weapons, a top school official told Mr. Kessler.

However, by bringing as much attention as it can to the armed-guards-in-school issue, the NRA may be crazy like a fox. That is because polls show it is popular with the US public.

A recent Washington Post/ABC News survey found that 55 percent of respondents approved of the idea of placing an armed guard in every US school. Asked to identify the best way to combat armed violence in schools, 43 percent chose the option of more gun control, while 41 percent picked the armed-guard option.