Secret tape from 1999 reveals NRA mocking their activist members as 'hillbillies' and 'fruitcakes' who might go off-script and embarrass them after Columbine shooting
- A 2.5-hour meeting among NRA leaders one day after the 1999 Columbine shooting was secretly recorded and released 22 years later on Tuesday
- They were heard mocking their members as 'nuts' and deliberated whether to go on with their conference scheduled for 12 days after the massacre
- NRA officials eventually decided to not cancel the meeting and justified it as a platform to respond to criticism
- The April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado executed by Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 13 and injured 24 more
A secret tape released this week has revealed that National Rife Association (NRA) leaders mocked their activist members as 'hillbillies' and 'fruitcakes' who might go off-script and embarrass them after the Columbine shooting.
One day after the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado - where two students opened fire and shot dead 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves - NRA's top executives and lobbyists had a meeting about the gun violence-related crisis.
The private conference call was secretly recorded by an unidentified participant, who publicly published parts of the 2.5-hour conversation on Tuesday, more than two decades after it happened.
The National Rifle Association's lobbyist and former president Marion Hammer (pictured) was heard scoffing at the association's members - calling them 'hillbillies and idiots' - during a conversation that was secretly recorded after the Columbine shooting in 1999
The same day of the massacre, the NRA was set to commence its annual World-Class Guns & Gear Expo meeting. Billboards advertising the 12-day meeting were already plastered throughout the city (pictured)
Longtime NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer was heard scoffing at the association's members, who she claimed might embarrass them, according to NPR, which obtained the recordings.
'If you pull down the exhibit hall, that's not going to leave anything for the media except the members meeting, and you're going to have the wackos with all kinds of crazy resolutions. With all kinds of - dressing like a bunch of hillbillies and idiots. And it's gonna be the worst thing you can imagine,' she said.
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre agreed: 'You know, the other problem is holding a member meeting without an exhibit hall.
'The people you are most likely to get in that member meeting without an exhibit hall are the nuts.'
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NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre (pictured in May 1999) called members 'nuts' on the secretly-recorded call
Protesters rallied outside of the NRA's convention in Littleton, Colorado, days after two students from Columbine High School went on a killing spree in 1999
'Made that point earlier. I agree. The fruitcakes are going to show up,' PR consultant Tony Makris chimed in.
Conservative politicians and gun industry representatives were also dismissed as weak as NRA officials harshly described how they would do whatever the association proposed, as reported by NPR.
A current NRA spokesperson told NPR: 'It is disappointing that anyone would promote an editorial agenda against the NRA by using shadowy sources and "mystery tapes" in order to conjure up the tragic events of over 20 years ago.'
The April 20, 1999 shooting at the high school in Littleton, Colorado, resulted in the death of 13 people - at the hand of students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17- and was the deadliest since the late 1960s. Twenty-four others were injured in the attack.
The same day, the NRA was set to commence its annual World-Class Guns & Gear Expo meeting. Billboards advertising the 12-day meeting were already plastered throughout the city and after news of the massacre broke, hate mail was immediately sent to NRA's offices.
'At that same period where they're going to be burying these children, we're going to be having media... trying to run through the exhibit hall, looking at kids fondling firearms, which is going to be a horrible, horrible, horrible juxtaposition,' NRA lobbyist Jim Baker was heard saying at the time.
Other members can be heard brainstorming ways out of the dilemma, and NRA official Jim Land said the organization couldn't 'tuck tail and run' because then they would 'be accepting responsibility for what happened out there.'
In 1999, Eric Harris (left), 18, and Dylan Klebold (right), 17, opened fire at Columbine High School in Colorado, killing 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves
'Is there something concrete we can offer? Not because guns are responsible, but because we care about these people?' NRA's Kayne Robinson asked during the secretly recorded call.
Makris replied: 'Like a victims fund' before backtracking, saying that the fund 'can be twisted too,' and people would ask: 'Why are you giving money? You feel responsible?'
The officials eventually decided not to cancel their convention and justified it as a platform to respond to criticism.
Hammer, who once served as NRA's president, was a fierce supporter of ensuring that the meeting wasn't cancelled.
'You have to go forward. For NRA to scrap this and the amount of money that we have spent...' she said on the recordings released by NPR.
'The message that it will send is that even the NRA was brought to its knees, and the media will have a field day with it,' Hammer added.
