NRA leader botches elephant shooting

[Agema]

The Secret Footage of the N.R.A. Chief’s Botched Elephant Hunt

Wayne LaPierre has cultivated his image as an exemplar of American gun culture, but video of his clumsy marksmanship—and details regarding his Rodeo Drive shopping trips—tells another story.

www.newyorker.com

So this footage was from eight years ago and buried. LaPierre (who claims to be a skilled hunter) botches killing an elephant, including shooting it a couple of times at short range after it's already collapsed but still alive, such that eventually one of the guides has to finish it off. And he does not look confident with that rifle. His wife also shoots an elephant - far more effectively, albeit with the advantage of a rest supplied by a guide.

I accept the occasional necessity of killing elephants. However, I find the idea of people doing it for fun enrages me to an unusual degree. The idea of doing it for fun and fucking it up so the animal lies there suffering, well... the forum rules preclude me wishing extreme pain and death on other human beings.

There is also something I find incredibly contemptible about these sorts of jaunts, where a bunch of local pros go out and do the hard work to find a suitable target, and some pathetic, cossetted Western arsehole just follows along for the hike, grabs his rifle at the end and *pop*. They are not really "hunting". There's no great skill, no honour, no achievement. It's like thinking a diner is a great chef just because they can do the work of forking food from plate to mouth at a restaurant. It's mere animal slaughter no better than an abattoir, except that abattoirs generally get the job done more humanely. Even if he hadn't fucked this up, why does anyone think this impressive?

 

[davidmc1158]

Unfortunately, it's worse than you think. This was a canned hunt. The elephant was comfortable around people and was made so in order to allow self-absorbed jackasses like LaPierre the opportunity to get close enough to the animal to get a kill. There was as much skill involved in this hunt as going out your own front door and shooting a neighbor's dog.

I've worked for a Conservation Department here in a state where hunting is a major thing. I understand that it is sometimes necessary to cull animals from a population in order to maintain the general health and ongoing viability of that population. I also understand that the areas in Africa where hunts like this take place generally need the income provided by hunting tourism very badly. But all of that understanding doesn't change the fact that I loathe this from the very bottom of my nethermost spite.

 

[Trunkage]

It is very normal for big game hunter to have all their work done for them by their guides, including being a few metres away. These people are generally bad shots and need every help them can get.

 

[Chimpzy]

Yay, canned hunts i.e. two animals died and suffered pointlessly so these two soulless rich sociopaths can feel a tingle in their decrepit crotch.

EDIT: reminded me of this song. Kickass song about a despicable practice.

 

[Silvanus]

What a detestable, irredeemable shitheel.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Inflicting pain and death just to distract himself from how small his penis is, and he couldn't even do that right.

 

[Buyetyen]

Big-game trophy hunting is a way of telling the world you have too much money and no conscience.

 

[SilentPony]

Big-game trophy hunting is a way of telling the world you have too much money and no conscience.

And deep seated inadequacy issues both in your public view of yourself as manly, and your private view of having a small dick.
You don't travel half way across the world and pay tens of thousands of dollars to an impoverished nation to have someone take you to an Elephant sanctuary, where an elderly elephant so used to humans it can't comprehend you mean it harmed is drugged and paraded around in a wide open space while a hunter lines up your shot for you because you have healthy self esteem and boundaries.

 

[Cheetodust]

Anyone else looking forward to seeing someone explain how this is either actually a good thing, being taken out of context, entirely the elephant's fault or would have been much worse under socialism? I am!

 

[Trunkage]

Anyone else looking forward to seeing someone explain how this is either actually a good thing, being taken out of context, entirely the elephant's fault or would have been much worse under socialism? I am!

It's good for the economy!

 

[Revnak]

That Elephant was probably a more conscious and social being than the NRA dipshit. There are some animal killings that are extremely analogous to murder and elephants are easily on the list. Fuck this guy.

 

[Agema]

That Elephant was probably a more conscious and social being than the NRA dipshit. There are some animal killings that are extremely analogous to murder and elephants are easily on the list. Fuck this guy.

Elephants are definitely dangerous creatures. Catch one in a bad mood, especially if it or its kin feel threatened, and it may well kill you. I would not go near an elephant in the wild, and I'd be careful around a domesticated one.

On the other hand, elephants generally seem to be unusually intelligent as animals go, and quite respectful of other life. I think, sadly, elephants are often more respectful of life than humans.

 

[SilentPony]

Elephants are definitely dangerous creatures. Catch one in a bad mood, especially if it or its kin feel threatened, and it may well kill you. I would not go near an elephant in the wild, and I'd be careful around a domesticated one.

On the other hand, elephants generally seem to be unusually intelligent as animals go, and quite respectful of other life. I think, sadly, elephants are often more respectful of life than humans.

Even if elephants are dangerous, which absolutely they can be, ALL animals can be dangerous if threatened. And this douchebag went out of his way to kill an elderly, trusting of humans elephant that was doped up and too drugged and old to run away. And he didn't even aim his own gun, someone else did. Even if we consider hunting an expression of manly bravado and independence, this wasn't hunting. This was simply euthanasia where he paid to shoot the poor thing rather than it get put to sleep.
It reminds me of when Dick Cheney went quail hunting, and it turned out the "quails" were mentally incapacitated drugged up flightless lumps of feathers put on catapults and hurled into the air for "hunters" to shoot at. And like this NRA douchebag, Dick Cheney missed.

 

[Gergar12]

Since republicans got bored of economically, and physically hurting human beings they now have to take it out on animals.

 

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