NRA Called Members ‘Hillbillies’ and ‘Fruitcakes’ in Panicked Talks After Columbine Massacre, New Tapes Reveal

In the immediate aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999, the leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) gathered on a conference call to discuss damage control and their upcoming conference in Denver, set to take place just miles away and days after the deadly shooting.

NPR obtained tapes of that call and revealed their contents on Tuesday in a bombshell report.

On the tapes, senior leaders at the NRA can be heard describing their most loyal and activist members as “hillbillies” and “fruitcakes” that the organization needed to be guarded against.

Still reeling from the memory of the intense blowback the NRA received in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the leaders “sounded shaken and panicked as they pondered their next step into what would become an era of routine and horrific mass school shootings.”

NPR reported, for the first time, that the NRA lost “some half a million members” in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing – including former Republican President George H.W. Bush.

The NRA was closely linked to the bombing, which targeted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) in the Murrah Federal Building, as the NRA called the ATF “jackbooted government thugs” in fundraising material a week before the bombing.

On the call NRA PR adviser Angus McQueen said:

“What we’re trying to avoid here, I think, is what happened after the Oklahoma City bombing. When we lost control of a situation and the result was a half a million members, the president of the United States bailing out on us and a firestorm of negative media that if you went back and looked at, it was probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars in opposition to us and our point of view”

While discussing the upcoming conference and the possibility of a scaled-down event, Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre says, “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.”

“Made that point earlier. I agree,” says PR consultant Tony Makris. “The fruitcakes are going to show up.”

NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer agreed, “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, of dressing like a bunch of hillbillies and idiots. And, and it’s gonna, it’s gonna be the worst thing you can imagine.”

The NRA leaders talked about alternatives to the conference as well:

NRA OFFICIAL KAYNE ROBINSON: Is there something concrete that we can offer? Not because guns are responsible, but because we care about these people? Is there anything? … Does that look crass or …
NRA LOBBYIST JIM BAKER: You mean the legislative?
ROBINSON: No, I’m talking about something concrete …
PR CONSULTANT TONY MAKRIS: Like a victims fund …
ROBINSON: Yeah, we create a victims fund, and we, uh, we give the victims a million dollars or something like that, uh. … Does that look bad, or does it look uh …
MAKRIS: Well, I mean, that can be twisted too. I mean, why … why are you giving money? You feel responsible?
BAKER: No. … Well, you’re — true. It can be twisted, but we feel sympathetic and …
NRA SPOKESPERSON BILL POWERS: Respect.

The NRA decided to hold a scaled-down version of its convention in Denver in the end and it was met by thousands of protesters.

NPR reached out to the NRA for a comment and said the “spokesperson called the story a ‘hit piece’ and complained that the NRA was denied the tape” – despite being provided a transcript.