When a New York jury delivered a verdict Friday evening against the National Rifle Association and its longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre, my first thoughts were oddly not about the NRA or all the lives destroyed by the gunplay that the organization did so much to foster. I didn’t think of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died by suicide, pulling the trigger on a gun that LaPierre had so desperately urged them to buy (to keep them safe from harm). Instead, I thought about the elephant that LaPierre encountered in Africa, and how the animal provided a capstone to LaPierre’s morbid career.
LaPierre, who resigned earlier this year, was found liable for $5.4 million in damages, a result of his years of extravagant grifting, in which he diverted the dues of NRA members, either directly or through intermediaries, to his own luxury vacations, private jet trips and a tailored Italian wardrobe that would shame a Hollywood clotheshorse.
LaPierre never pulled the trigger on his victims. He employed propaganda, fear and politics to shape the most depraved gun laws, and the most deadly gun culture, in the quasi-civilized world.
The case of the elephant, however, was different. A video depicts LaPierre walking through the scrublands of Botswana, his white guide at his side, a cast of locals along to cater to his wants. LaPierre approaches the elephant, who appears no more than a couple dozen feet away. This time, following the guide’s direction, LaPierre pulls his own trigger. The elephant is hit.
“Did we get it?” LaPierre asks. It’s the first indication of LaPierre’s disconnection from the reality around him. “He’s down,” his guide assures him. Someone laughs.