An Insider’s View of the NRA Board of Directors

In the last eight months as a member of the NRA Board of Directors (BOD), I have been asked often by NRA members, pro-gun groups and pro-second amendment reporters “Why does the NRA BOD refuse to terminate Wayne LaPierre’s employment in light of the accusations and evidence of mismanagement, malfeasance, and misuse of NRA funds for personal benefit?” I believe there are three primary reasons and a lengthy list of secondary reasons.

Primary Reasons:

1. NRA Officers and key board members fully support maintaining Wayne LaPierre as the EVP regardless of the evidence that has been presented in the recent Bankruptcy trial.
2. Several Directors are not independent fiduciaries and will follow the leadership regardless of the admission of wrong doing by Wayne LaPierre and others.
3. A few Directors are independent but will not openly challenge the current leadership for fear of reprisals, loss of committee assignments, and ultimately removal from the BOD.

The BOD’s failure in the fiduciary role of over sight has created a risk of dissolution by the New York Attorney General and has enraged NRA members, pro second amendment organizations and second amendment reporters. The very groups that historically have been the back bone of the NRA are now the biggest critics. The NRA routinely describes these former support groups as adverse to the NRA and malcontents. These often repeated derogatory terms are used to described anyone or any organization with views that do not align with the NRA leadership.

In order to develop an understanding of where the NRA is heading, it is necessary to predict the outcome of the New York Attorney General’s Complaint against the NRA.

Potential Outcomes:

1. The NRA prevails in the NYAG case and all charges are dropped and the NRA returns to normal operations with current management and BOD in place. This is not plausible due to the over whelming evidence compiled by the NYAG and through testimonies during the bankruptcy trial. If Martha Stewart can go to jail for insider trading on a transaction valued at $45,000; then I venture to speculate that mismanagement of millions of dollars can also have serious consequences.

2. The NRA loses the NYAG case and immediately files an appeal or another bankruptcy filing. This is possible, however I think is unlikely because the NRA will lose all leverage with the NYAG and will be at the mercy of the court.

3). The NRA avoids the trial through negotiations with the NYAG agrees to remove management, agrees to pay a massive fine, the NRA BOD is disbanded, and the NYAG has a huge political victory. I think this outcome is the most likely based on the other possible outcomes.

The appointment of an Independent Receiver by the New York Court could help stop the raiding of the NRA’s bank account. I am hoping that the recent filing of an intervention in the NYAG case (which I am the named Director) will finally end the continued wrong doing by a few and save the NRA for the members.

I hope to encourage all NRA members to become fully engaged in taking back control of the NRA for the benefit of the members. The annual member’s meeting has been scheduled for October 2, 2021 in Charlotte North Carolina. If you attend, now is the time for your voice to be heard. The BOD will not change course and have no intention of correcting the wrong doing of the past. If the NRA is important to you, please get involved….now!

Interesting. Who wrote this?

Roscoe Marshall? I got the name from this:

NRA Director Proposed as Intervenor After New York Court Setback for NRA Members

That is supported here in the NY Post as well,
NRA board member calls for ouster of CEO Wayne LaPierre in lawsuit

I hope they get it straightened out. Lapierre is a liberal dream for the war on the 2nd Amendment. That jackass is poison.

I am not close to the situation. But looking from a distance trying to see the forest instead of the trees it seems the NRA has lost the confidence of the rank and file. Plus is looks like the people who run the NRA do not care about having the confidence of the the rank and file. No confidence means the money dries up and the NRA collapses into itself. The court cases simply speed up the inevitable.

Naturally I would prefer for the NRA to go back to its roots but without the confidence of "the money" I do not see their survival. The NRA was once our best friend but IMO, they'll need a miracle to get out of their current dilemma. PIty.

This is true. I just recently let my membership lapse. Why give my money to a corrupt organization?

As long as WLP draws a paycheck from the NRA then they have seen their last dime from me. And I have told them as much. I would rather give to GOA or SCI.

If you study the by-laws and how the organization is run, you will see that the whole shootin match was hijacked decades ago. The Nominating Committee determines who the candidates are for the Board of Directors, and that same committee is selected from those on the BoD. Professional K Street lobbyists gained control and have maintained an unbreakable death grip on the organization since. They don't operate organization for the benefit of the Second Amendment or the membership, they operate it for their own benefit.

The NRA has become as much a part of "the swamp" as the DNC.

Well said I think. Nature and politics abhor a vacuum. When the NRA implodes GOA and a couple others will fill the slot almost overnight. The fact that the NRA has betrayed it's reason to exist suggests that the loss of the NRA may be a big bonus for our rights. We have been putting our money and efforts behind a traitor for too long.

Its embarrassing to all members what LaPierre and his band of thieves have done to the once proud and powerful NRA. I was proud to be a member, now I dont admit it and am only still a member to shoot in NRA Matches

I would rather stand behind local associations like The Texas Rifle association.

^^^^^

Yes, its not just LaPierre. You are right to note that others (read certain folks on the Board of Directors) are equally at fault.

I don't even open their emails any more, just delete. Been a member since 1970, currently benefactor life.

Wayne LaPierre re-elected as NRA CEO
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OCTOBER 4, 2021
Good morning, Bulletin readers. The NRA board re-elected its top leader to another term amid ongoing legal troubles and internal calls for reform. Meanwhile, suicides rose last year among active military personnel. — Tom Kutsch, newsletter editor
WHAT TO KNOW TODAY

NRA directors re-elect CEO Wayne LaPierre. At a sparsely attended annual meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, a small crew of NRA members and directors seeking reform drew little support. Frank Tait, an NRA life member and critic of current leadership, put forward a resolution calling for the resignation of LaPierre and other officers. The resolution was blocked and did not get a vote. Board gadfly Phil Journey, who led an effort to investigate the New York attorney general's allegations against the NRA during the group's failed Texas bankruptcy, nominated fellow director Rocky Marshall for LaPierre's post. Marshall is attempting to intervene in the New York suit, arguing that NRA leadership is not acting in the group's best interests. His nomination went nowhere. According to an account that Tait posted online, 49 out of 76 board members attended. Tait reported that 44 directors voted to re-elect LaPierre, two voted against him, and three did not vote. Directors also chose Charles Cotton to succeed Carolyn Meadows as NRA president, swapping one high-ranking LaPierre loyalist for another. The NRA boasts about having upward of 5 million members. According to Tait, there were roughly 200 people, including board directors, at the annual meeting. — Will Van Sant, staff writer.

ICYMI: Federal judge says FEC must investigate, rule on allegations that the NRA violated election law. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for D.C. ruled that the Federal Election Commission must determine whether the gun group illegally used a network of shell companies to coordinate spending with the campaigns of former President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. The ruling stems from a suit that the Campaign Legal Center and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence brought against the FEC for failing to take action on four complaints Giffords submitted alleging that the NRA violated the Federal Election Campaign Act. The FEC complaints were spurred by a series of reports published by our Mike Spies laying out evidence that the NRA and its vendors used apparent shell companies to evade rules prohibiting coordination between outside groups and the campaigns they support.

Suicides rose 15 percent among military personnel in 2020. Overall, 580 service members — 384 active-duty troops, 77 reservists, and 119 National Guard members — took their own lives last year, according to the Department of Defense’s Annual Suicide Report. The total number was up from 504 in 2019 and 543 in 2018. Most military personnel who took their own lives were currently enlisted, white, male, and under 30. The proportion of suicides with a gun ranged from 64 percent (active) to 75 percent (reservists) to 80 percent (National Guard members). The report also noted that a majority of military personnel held the misconception that gun storage practices have no affect on suicide risk. "While the presence of a firearm does not cause someone to be suicidal, research tells us that storing a loaded firearm at home increases the risk of dying by suicide up to four to six times," said Karin Orvis, director of the department's suicide prevention office. The new report comes weeks after the Department of Veterans Affairs released a report finding a slight decline among veteran suicides in 2019. In addition to looking at a different year, that report also included former military personnel. [If you are having thoughts of suicide, help is available 24 hours a day: Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.]

“We are under attack by the state of Massachusetts.” So said Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith about his decision to relocate the headquarters of storied gunmaker from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Maryville, Tennessee, which we covered here on Friday. After initial news reports about the move, Smith spoke to the Springfield-based The Republican and specified that the decision was largely a reaction to proposed Massachusetts legislation that would ban the in-state manufacturing of firearms that are illegal to sell in the state.

Capitol rioters came armed, despite repeated claims otherwise. After the events of January 6, we tracked some of the gun charges levied against people in Washington, D.C., surrounding the riot, though most of the actual violence didn’t involve firearms (an exception was the fatal police shooting of a rioter). Mother Jones recently parsed video footage, court documents, and Congressional testimony to flesh out the picture, including that some protesters allegedly carried concealed pistols and more details about an alleged arsenal of guns stockpiled near downtown D.C. by members of the Oath Keepers militia.
DATA POINT

~4.5 million — the number of women in the United States who reported being threatened with a gun by an intimate partner in their lifetime, according to a 2018 study. The same survey found that nearly 1 million women had reported being shot or shot at by an intimate partner. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. [Trauma, Violence, & Abuse journal]

So in other words, don’t give a dime to that corrupt marketing group?

I think they moved the convention from Houston to Charlotte because way too many 2nd Amendment proponents would have attended if it were in Texas as originally scheduled.

I think Houston being Houston played a role.

That's exactly what my thinking is as well. I'm a life member. However like others I will never send them another dime so long as the current crooks rule. I only hold onto my membership as I have some hope they will somehow pull their heads out of their butts.

I've had my Life membership for near 25 years, currently a Patron member. There have been members and BODs after LaPierre for at least 20+ years. Many wanted the NRA to take a much harder political position, like what GOA was taking back in the early 2000's. While I'm not a big LaPierre fan, I'm VERY concern that a hostile New York court has the chance to make their changes to our NRA. I

This here. Let'm go under if that is who they believe in.

I stopped supporting the NRA long ago. The NRA is a compromise when it comes to the 2A. They worked with the federal government to ban fully automatic weapons and single handedly are responsible for the establishment of the NICS background check system, which is simply unconstitutional. If you want to support UNCOMPROMISING gun advocate groups there are plenty out there, including Gun Owners of America.

I had discontinued supporting the NRA, at least 10 years ago and replaced it with the TSRA. The NRA is not what it used to be and is nothing but a paycheck for Ole Wayne!

I cannot control the NRA. But I can control where my donations do. It's pretty obvious Wayne is not going to let go of his sweet deal until he completely destroys the NRA. Such is the way of tyrants.

Hopefully Allen West can dethrone Wayne in this coming election.

He only got 1 vote. So, same old NRA with the swindler in chief at the top. I’m only a member at this point because I bought a 5 year membership after the Parkland tragedy. My money goes elsewhere now.

Think I'm out now and I will let them know why when I send back the membership re-new form.

I'll spend my money with other supporters.

Life member ,but no xtra donations. Everytime they send me something I just write on it no funds till the crook wayne is gone. Send it back in the prepaid envelope.
I support GOA now.

I'm a life member and won't give that up as I hope I will outlive the current board and certainly La Pierre and one day the NRA will be a great organization again. Until then, they will never get 1 red cent from me...I don't care how much they spend sending me crap in the mail.

I gave up on nra twenty years ago just a bunch of money hungry crooks

Been sending their request for money back in the prepaid envelopes telling them as long as the crook lapierre & current board is seated they aren't getting squat from me.

Funny thing...I've been doing that for several years and haven't received any solicitations for money in over a year. Maybe somebody is paying attention.

I’m still a member and will continue to be. Why? They are still the only game in town. And, my expectations fromCongress are pretty low.

Once they screwed over the NFA folks years ago, I was done with them.

NRA is about fund raising to line pockets. Those at the top are the best at getting donations. If they have to actively lobby against gun rights or for gun control to satisfy donors they do. It's just the same with your elected politicians on any issue. Big donors come before members or voters.

If your sole interest is in preserving 2A, not competitive shooting or other programs NRA does, NRA membership is a waste of money. Other groups do it better for less.

My wife & I are Lifetime NRA members. For now, the only benefit that gets me is retained membership at my local private gun club. I wrote them a couple years ago & told them to take me off of their incessant mailing list. Until there are drastic changes in the NRA, I will remain static. I subsequently joined the Gun Owners of America & have been very pleased.

Please let me know which one, in your opinion, is the best bang for the buck (pun intended), and that's the one I'll support. TY

For bulldog-tenacious legal offensives against attempted abridgements of 2A rights, it is hard to beat the Second Amendment Foundation.

had a former NRA board member over for dinner a few weeks ago.. not going to name names but man, NRA is a hot mess

Howl, who are the other groups?

Haven't been a member since 1995

Exactly! Those that complain about the barrage of fundraising mail and e-mails must never have joined any of the other organizations because they are as bad or in some cases worse.
I’m a Life Member of the NRA and donate to the NRA ILA from time to time.
I’ve donated to the GOA, National Association for Gun Rights, The 2nd Amendment Foundation and Texas Gun Rights. Once you donate, these other organizations are relentless in asking for more money.
The NRA is still the big dog in the game. Without the NRA lobbying to receive the support of law makers our rights granted by the 2nd Amendment would be history.

Not sure I buy that. In fact, I do NOT buy that.