On September 26, 2013, Makris appeared on the NRA News show “Cam & Company,” where he spoke about shooting and killing an elephant on an episode of “Under Wild Skies” on NBC Sports. Makris stated, “The nice ones will come up and go, ‘You shoot elephant? Why?’ And I said, ‘Well, the short answer is because hungry people eat them and because I'm a hunter. You know, I'm not an elephant hunter. I'm a hunter. I hunt all things.’ And they go, ‘Well, nobody should shoot an elephant.’ I said, ‘Why?’ And they go, ‘They're so big and kind and gentle and smart’ and I said, ‘Okay, let me ask you a question. Should I be able to shoot birds?’ ‘Well, I guess that's okay.’ ‘Ducks?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Pigeons?’ ‘Oh, they're flying rats, okay.’ ‘Rabbits?’ ‘Well rabbits are cute. But yeah.’ ‘Squirrels?’ ‘That's nothing but a rat with a tail—with a fuzzy tail.’ And I said, ‘Well, deer eat all my mother's roses in Long Island and I go, ‘So I can shoot all of those, but not an elephant?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you realize that if you subscribe to that philosophy you are committing a very unique form of animal racism?’ And now they're shocked. And they said, ‘But they're so big and special and they're smarter.’ And I went, ‘You know, [German dictator Adolf] Hitler would have said the same thing.’” On September 28, 2013, NBC announced that the show would no longer air on its network “due to the program's close association with its host, whose recent comments comparing his critics to Hitler are outrageous and unacceptable.”

In January 2013, in the wake of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, the National Rifle Association aired a TV ad which began by asking, “Are the President’s kids more important than yours? Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school?” The ad was the product of Ackerman-McQueen and its subsidiary, the Mercury Group. It generated significant controversy and criticism nationally.