Mass shootings have become depressingly and disturbingly common in the United States in the last 20 years. But in April 1999, they were a world-shaking event. The mass killing that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which two students killed 10 of their fellow classmates and themselves, forced America to reconsider its relationship with guns, with media, with the culture developing within schools.
One of the organizations that found itself in the middle of that reckoning was the National Rifle Association, the largest arm of the gun lobby. In the years since, the NRA has been a source of animosity and antagonism following mass shootings, often using the events to agitate for looser gun control laws in the name of self-defense. But new tapes unearthed by NPR recorded during secret meetings held by NRA officials following the Columbine shooting reveal that the organization wasn’t always so stuck in its hardcore views — though it was certainly concerned that its membership would be.
