In 2013, Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association decided the best way to make Americans forget about the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting would be to show how cool guns were by using them to kill elephants. He and his wife, Susan, went Botswana's Okavango Delta with a camera crew in tow to film them shooting African bush elephants, which, as The New Yorker points out, "are the largest land mammals on Earth."
"But the program never aired, according to sources and records, because of concerns that it could turn into a public-relations fiasco."
I couldn't watch much of the video because it's horrific and heartbreaking.
From The New Yorker:
The Trace and The New Yorker obtained a copy of the footage, which has been hidden from public view for eight years. It shows that when guides tracked down an elephant for LaPierre, the N.R.A. chief proved to be a poor marksman. After LaPierre's first shot wounded the elephant, guides brought him a short distance from the animal, which was lying on its side, immobilized. Firing from point-blank range, LaPierre shot the animal three times in the wrong place. Finally, a guide had the host of "Under Wild Skies" fire the shot that killed the elephant. Later that day, Susan LaPierre showed herself to be a better shot than her husband. After guides tracked down an elephant for her, Susan killed it, cut off its tail, and held it in the air. "Victory!" she shouted, laughing. "That's my elephant tail. Way cool."
