Magazines that force-fed bullets into one of the guns Lanza used to cut down the children would have been banned under state legislation that the National Rifle Association and gunmakers successfully fought.

Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle with magazines containing 30 rounds as his main weapon, said Vance at a news conference Sunday.

A proposal in 2011 would have made it a felony to possess magazines capable of holding more than 10 bullets and required owners to surrender them to law enforcement or remove them from the state. Opponents sent more than 30,000 emails and letters to state lawmakers in a campaign organized by the NRA, said Robert Crook, head of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, which opposed the legislation.

“The legislators got swamped by NRA emails,” said Betty Gallo, who lobbied on behalf of the legislation for Connecticut Against Gun Violence. “They were scared of the NRA and the political backlash.”

The NRA, which has been slammed with criticism following Friday’s deadly shooting, touted a milestone the day before: earning 1.7 million “likes” on Facebook.

Now its page has vanished.

Those who liked the NRA’s Facebook page first noticed it was gone Friday, and the group has continued to stay silent over the weekend. Its last Twitter update about a “10 Days of NRA Giveaways” was posted Friday morning, just as the mayhem began.

It’s unclear why the NRA, which claims a membership of 4.3 million, may have pulled its Facebook page. A call to its Fairfax, Va.-based headquarters wasn’t returned Sunday.