The NRA Thinks Of You As Hillbillies, Idiots, Fruitcakes And Nuts
BY Herschel Smith
3 years ago
Leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) expressed concern that the organization’s more radical members—who were described as “hillbillies” and “fruitcakes”—would embarrass the gun rights organization in the days following the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, according to tapes obtained by NPR and revealed on Tuesday.
In the wake of what had been one the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, the NRA’s senior leaders—including lobbyist Marion Hammer and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre—held a conference call to discuss whether they would still hold the organization’s annual convention in Denver.
Recordings of those private meetings revealed Hammer and LaPierre mocking some of the NRA’s more activist members, who the organization worried would be the only ones showing up in the aftermath of the shooting.
“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,” Hammer is heard saying on the tapes.
LaPierre says: “The people you are most likely to get in that member meeting without an exhibit hall are the nuts.”
“I agree, the fruitcakes are going to show up,” consultant Tony Makris adds.
Tapes of the call show that several of the organization’s lobbyists were worried that the Columbine shooting would create a massive crisis for the NRA and its agenda, especially given the convention was scheduled to take place just days after the tragedy.
“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,” lobbyist Jim Baker can be heard saying.
You see, the NRA leadership has always thought of you and treated you just as the democratic and republican parties have always treated their own – with disdainful and patronizing sneer.
That’s why they supported the NFA, the GCA, the bump stock ban, the assault weapons ban, and universal background checks.
They don’t care about you or your concerns. They only care about themselves, Wayne LaPierre’s suits, his little blond cohort in the swimming pool, their junkets and trips across the globe, and at the moment their scavenging of the NRA firearms museum for the loyalists (those firearms being donated in good faith by men who worked hard for a living).
Because they see you as goobers. And maybe men who support the largest, most effective, most influential gun control organization on earth are just that.
On November 9, 2021 at 11:37 pm, Jsf said:
Don’t give a flying f CK what those a-holes think. They won’t get my money or support; they are nothing more than another sub species of DC disease riddled vermin. Karma’s a bitch that has Wayne la peepee’s address and phone number.
On November 10, 2021 at 12:31 am, Frank Clarke said:
(Response to a John Ross comment on FB)
“Many of you people that are reading this are not NRA members, but I’ll point out that you have benefited from the NRA’s efforts for all of your life.”
That’s funny all by itself. Yes, I have been the beneficiary of the 1934 NFA and the ATF that came along with it, plus the 1968 GCA and the ubiquitous 4473s that accompanied it, PLUS background checks! PLUS a ten-year clamp on AR-15s in 1994!
But wait, there’s MORE! There’s Red Flag Laws that the NRA declined to score (negatively) and the Bump Stock Ban that Wayne the Peter actually advised Trump to go forward with!
Awright, NRA! You go, girl!
#NotRelevantAnymore
#NegotiatingRightsAway
What have they done for me lately?
On November 10, 2021 at 2:48 am, Jimmy the Saint said:
Nobles hate peasants…film at 11.
On November 10, 2021 at 7:15 am, JB said:
When and if you take that call from an NRA fund raising caller, talk to them in your best Idiot Hillbilly voice. Tell them your such an idiot you gave them all your money in the past, but now the kids are naked and your eating your last shoe. Beg for Wayne to send you a check.
On November 10, 2021 at 7:48 am, June J said:
I sneer and look down upon liars, frauds, grifters and lawyers…..of those who have led Negotiating Rights Away to its upcoming demise are especially despised.
On November 10, 2021 at 9:54 am, George 1 said:
@Frank Clarke
Don’t forget all of the gun control measures that were supported by none other than Ronald Reagan. With friends like the NRA and “conservative” politicians it is a wonder there are any guns to own.
On November 10, 2021 at 10:34 am, Fred said:
NPR thinks it’s driving a wedge when in fact they are doing gun owners a very kind service. The sooner the NRA is dead the better off we’ll be.
I’m reminded of Matthew 3:7-12 where John Baptist fortells of the end the old covenant and of the true seed of Abraham to come, and how the old guard with its heretical religion will be burned up with fire unquenchable.
Yes, the sooner the NRA religion is destroyed the sooner we can enter into the purity of men’s duties to God from which our rights are afforded under the grace and mercy of God Almighty. As with salvation, our rights could never come by the law, but by the kindness and love of Christ our true King.
How’s that for hillbilly, Idiot, Fruitcake, and Nuts?
@JB, that’s just how I talk. Forward all calls to me. Hehe.
On November 10, 2021 at 12:19 pm, elysianfield said:
Over the years, I, as a life member, donated several thousand dollars to the NRA thru decades of NRA Visa Card purchases.
I hope LaPierre spent the money wisely…couple of pair of silk stockings, maybe a tie….
Yeah….
On November 10, 2021 at 1:27 pm, Longbow said:
Hey, Uncle Ted? You still gonna defend this S.O.B.? You gonna continue to blow smoke and tell the members that Wayne’s heart is in the right place? What are you and the other Board members gonna do about it?
On November 10, 2021 at 1:31 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Ted’s off the board.
On November 10, 2021 at 2:06 pm, Michael (from Utah) said:
@JB – I had a NRA call a few years ago asking me to join. Man, I lit into the operator (I was polite, but firm) telling him exactly what I thought of the NRA. I strongly suggested he let those up the line know that I wasn’t the only one that thought this way.
Probably goes without saying that I haven’t ever heard from them again. :)
On November 10, 2021 at 3:17 pm, Chris said:
Is there any doubt NOW.
NPR has there child like reasoning. Hell with them.
But it’s Good to be confirmed and vidicated.
We all knew.
On November 10, 2021 at 3:28 pm, Henry said:
Oddly enough, I sympathize with what they were saying… in this case.
Every large membership organization has its share of fruitcakes. Every one. And there’s not a thing you can do about it.
You go to any Second Amendment rally. There are always a handful of guys dressed like Red Dawn extras, or carrying vulgar signs, or being obstreporous, ridiculous, or even drunk. And they draw the media like rotting meat draws flies. And they make you look stupid, because that’s the media’s entire objective for being there.
What these officers were saying was simple: the marginal members — and nowhere were they charactering ALL their members are marginal — would rather be at the exhibits than the boring business meeting, but they’d show up and make trouble for everyone else if there were no exhibits to suply them wth bread and circuses.
And sadly, this is a reasonable risk assessment.
Yes, it’s manipulative and Machiavellian… but it’s true from experience.
On November 10, 2021 at 5:19 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Don’t jump out of the pan and into the fire, as the old folk saying goes.
The NRA has set new lows for its institutional behavior – corruption, cronyism and incompetence are rife within the ranks of its leadership. Executive VP Wayne LaPierre is nothing more than a thief in a thousand-dollar suit. And worse, as our host has already stated so-well, the NRA is de facto controlled opposition thanks to its taking the side of the swamp against ordinary Americans and the RTKBA, so many times over the years.
Many of its current and former members are ready to throw in the towel, but before doing so, they ought to ask: If the NRA folds, who steps into the breach?
Who fights the anti-gun lobby in all of its forms? The National Rifle Association, for all of its flaws, knows official Washington well, has a deep list of contacts within the bureaucracy and on legislative staffs.
Are Gun Owners of America and the others able, even if they are willing, to do the job the NRA won’t do?
I have no love for the NRA. My sole concern is that the deep-state and their allies are duping the pro-gun community into killing the NRA for them, so they won’t have to. Once that roadblock is eliminated, who stands in their way?
On November 10, 2021 at 5:36 pm, Henry said:
“Are Gun Owners of America and the others able, even if they are willing, to do the job the NRA won’t do?”
If the NRA won’t do the job, the question is moot, isn’t it?
This approach is analogous to the old advice that electing a random RINO is better than letting a Democrat win. Those who haven’t by now figured out where that leads are deluding themselves.
On November 10, 2021 at 11:17 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Henry
Re: “If the NRA won’t do the job, the question is moot, isn’t it?”
No, not at all. The question isn’t moot at all, not from where I am standing. It’s a legitimate question far as I am concerned. There’s nothing wrong with the cause, just with the people who are alleged to have been fighting on its behalf.
The real problem is the propensity of the inside-the-beltway swamp to contaminate and ultimately absorb those who get near it. How do you keep the next executive VP of whatever organization it is …. from becoming another Wayne LaPierre?
On November 11, 2021 at 3:54 am, Ohio Guy said:
I guess we could pray to higher powers that China or Russia puts a nuke inside the beltway swamp. THEN, that’ll be a moot question, eh?
On November 11, 2021 at 9:49 am, Fred said:
“How do you keep the next executive VP of whatever organization it is …. from becoming another Wayne LaPierre?”
Salvation in Christ Jesus. Only by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God is one convicted of sin all the day long moment by moment. Real Christians are in fact better people, not because of their own righteousness, but that by the blessings of God He trains, admonishes, and rewards daily. Real blood bought, Holy Ghost indwelled believers DO IN FACT build more just societies and civilizations.
Sin IS the problem, Jesus IS the answer.