A video-captured trophy hunt by top US gun lobbyist Wayne LaPierre in Botswana caused horror - and malice.
The video, published by The New Yorker magazine and the organization The Trace, shows how the head of the powerful gun lobby NRA tries unsuccessfully to give a gunshot on a wounded elephant.
The video first shows how LaPierre injures the animal with a first shot.
He then shoots the elephant three more times from close range - but none of the shots are fatal.
The fatal shot is finally fired by one of LaPierre's hunting companions.
The footage also shows LaPierre's wife Susan, who kills another elephant and then cuts off the tip of its tail at the suggestion of a hunting guide.
She calls out: "Victory!"
The video was originally shot in 2013 for an NRA documentary, but was then withheld and only now known.
Sharp criticism
The founder of the organization Moms Demand Action, Shannon Watts, wrote on Twitter that the NRA chief had managed to turn both hunters and gun owners against him "because it is not only inhuman, but also because he is a terrible shooter" .
Center for Biological Diversity's legal director, Tanya Sanerib, said she was "disgusted" by LaPierre's "brutal, clumsy slaughter of this beautiful creature."
"No animal should suffer this way," she added.
According to the report by The Trace, the LaPierres had stools made from the front feet of the elephants they killed.
The NRA is already under pressure against its leadership over allegations of embezzlement by the New York prosecutor's office. In January, the lobby organization filed for bankruptcy and filed for bankruptcy protection in a bankruptcy court in Dallas, Texas. With the maneuver, the organization wanted to escape further legal prosecution in New York.