The NRA's Secret Tapes

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Soon after the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, leaders of the National Rifle Association held a conference call to craft their response. Secret tapes from this call obtained by NPR's Investigations team reveal how the NRA developed what would become their standard response after decades of school shootings. | Listen to the original Up First episode: n.pr/nratapes

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:03.4	Hi, Planet Money listeners, Amanda Arochek here.
0:09.9	We had a very different plan for today's show, but after yesterday's shooting at an elementary
0:16.7	school in Texas, we decided to share this story.
0:19.8	A warning, this episode deals with guns and school shootings.
0:24.6	The NRA's annual meeting begins on Friday in Houston.
0:28.1	It's a few hundred miles from Uvalde, Texas.
0:31.3	Former President Donald Trump is slated to headline the event.
0:34.5	Texas Governor Greg Abbott is also expected to speak.
0:38.2	It's a moment that's eerily similar to one that occurred more than two decades ago.
0:43.3	When the NRA's annual event was set to begin in Denver, just days after two gunmen killed
0:48.2	12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
0:53.5	NPR's investigations team recently published a story showing how the NRA's response in
0:59.0	that moment, back in 1999, set the organization's strategy with regard to school shootings.
1:06.2	Reporter Tim Mack obtained secret recordings of top NRA leaders at that time.
1:12.1	In those recordings, they debate possible courses of action.
1:16.2	And where they landed then, feels something like the NRA's playbook today.
1:21.8	Tim Mack led the reporting with Tom Drysback of the Investigations team.
1:26.6	Columbine was one of the worst school shootings the country had ever seen.
1:31.6	And everyone was trying to figure out how to respond.
1:34.8	Schools postponed pep rallies and games, TV shows and movies were pulled from the schedules,
1:39.6	concerts were canceled.
	...

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