Secrecy, Self-Dealing, and Greed at the N.R.A.

[Chameleox]

It's more like expecting a business you didn't hire to do anything for you. If you aren't a customer of McDonalds do you really feel it is within your rights to demand menu concessions?

If McDonalds called me every week to ask if I'd consider coming back for a Big Mac? Yes, I'd think that in that case, I can tell the caller that I won't return unless their food gets better and they get rid of the one employee who keeps coughing on the fries.

How about if I watch people keep going to McDonalds only to be disappointed in the food, yet being constantly told that they're the best/biggest restaurant in town, so I might as well eat there. No I'm not going to give them any money, despite being a former customer.

You would think that since Mickkie D's...err...the NRA is so interested in asking me to re-join or send money (I suspect they're more interested in my money), they'd then be interested in hearing some ideas for how to best court my donation and the donations of those like me. I got tired of the magatizements offering me 2 pages of hunting tips for every 5 pages of hype, low quality "collectible" plates and knives, and solicitations.

They also need an answer to this article and the PR around it.

[SteyrAUG]

If McDonalds called me every week to ask if I'd consider coming back for a Big Mac? Yes, I'd think that in that case, I can tell the caller that I won't return unless their food gets better and they get rid of the one employee who keeps coughing on the fries.

How about if I watch people keep going to McDonalds only to be disappointed in the food, yet being constantly told that they're the best/biggest restaurant in town, so I might as well eat there. No I'm not going to give them any money, despite being a former customer.

You would think that since Mickkie D's...err...the NRA is so interested in asking me to re-join or send money (I suspect they're more interested in my money), they'd then be interested in hearing some ideas for how to best court my donation and the donations of those like me. I got tired of the magatizements offering me 2 pages of hunting tips for every 5 pages of hype, low quality "collectible" plates and knives, and solicitations.

They also need an answer to this article and the PR around it.

So tell them as soon as they get on the "sporter clause" you are prepared to become a Life Member. Let them hear that 10,000 times and maybe they will get a clue.

[Diamondback]

So tell them as soon as they get on the "sporter clause" you are prepared to become a Life Member. Let them hear that 10,000 times and maybe they will get a clue.

I got in on the $600 at $25/month Discount Rate Life plan so I might as well finish that course, but you can bet that when they start squawking at me to upgrade I'll throw down that card. "Until you either get Sporter Clause repealed or show me the Lawfare plan to get it killed in the courts, my money goes to SAF and GOA instead."

For the guys who grouse about telemarketing, I never gave them my phone number and the snailmails go straight to the shredder.

[SteyrAUG]

I got in on the $600 at $25/month Discount Rate Life plan so I might as well finish that course, but you can bet that when they start squawking at me to upgrade I'll throw down that card. "Until you either get Sporter Clause repealed or show me the Lawfare plan to get it killed in the courts, my money goes to SAF and GOA instead."

For the guys who grouse about telemarketing, I never gave them my phone number and the snailmails go straight to the shredder.

Honestly, after my Life membership, they get nothing from me. I tell them if I have money to give, it goes directly to the ILA.

[Diamondback]

Honestly, after my Life membership, they get nothing from me. I tell them if I have money to give, it goes directly to the ILA.

After my Life is paid off, the only money they get from me is the costs of getting and maintaining my Instructor/Coach creds, course materials and incidentals for the GF and I participating in the Marksmanship Program. (Washington has a requirement about unlicensed non-citizens can only legally shoot in "organized shooting activity with written invitation" so NRAMP looks like her Golden Ticket to join me on the range once I have the creds to write her invites on my own say-so, but until then I have a couple range operators who've told me "tell us when and what and we'll cut you the invite anytime.") The real bucks... well, right now SAF seems to be delivering more courtroom return on the gun community's investment.

[Doc Safari]

This is how dinosaurs head for the tar pit:

https://guntalk.com/news/politics/nra-meltdown

The current leadership at the NRA has put the organization in great danger. I honestly don't know if it can be saved -- at least, not in its current form. However, we definitely need it to survive. Now we will see if the board of directors has the guts to do what is needed.

The National Rifle Association is in serious trouble, and the NRA Board of Directors has only two options to save America's biggest civil rights organization.

Option 1. A majority of the Board circles the wagons in defense of Wayne LaPierre and his pals and tries to weather the storm. (They’ll fail, and the whole ship will sink.)

Option 2. A majority of the Board fires LaPierre and other executives (or accepts their resignations) and nullifies their contracts, suspends all vendor contracts pending thorough review and renegotiation, and purges culpable members of their own body – demonstrating a commitment to safeguarding NRA assets on behalf of the membership. (Plugging the holes and possibly saving the ship.)

Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA, along with fellow executives and outside contractors, (in particular Advertising agency Ackerman McQueen) has been recklessly shoveling money out of NRA coffers for decades – to the tune of possibly hundreds of millions of dollars. This has been done with the complicity of some of the NRA’s elected directors, the willful ignorance of others, and the active resistance of a few more.

The chicanery, mostly in the form of inflated executive salaries, sweetheart deals to friends and family, and routine payments to vendors for unspecified services, raised objections among loyal NRA staff members, but their questions and concerns were met with hostility and retribution. My father raised these exact concerns over 20 years ago when he was on the NRA Board of Directors, only to be pushed out of the leadership. As the problems got worse in recent years, NRA fell under increased scrutiny from reporters and regulators, leading some staff members to redouble efforts to raise alarms to the appropriate board committees. But these board members continued to sweep the improprieties under the rug, even after strong warnings from outside counsel that the organization was at risk of severe damage, particularly from New York regulators.

As a nonprofit chartered in New York, the NRA falls under New York law and the purview of the NRA-hating NY Attorney General. She has frequently expressed her desire to tear down the organization, and has been signaling a pending investigation into NRA finances.

In an effort to save the organization, some staff and former employees reluctantly shared some of their evidence with reporters, and a bombshell expose’ was published in The New Yorker in mid-April, just days after the NRA had filed a lawsuit against their long-time PR firm, Ackerman McQueen, suggesting that Ack-Mack had been taking advantage of some lax billing and conflict of interest policies at NRA. This was an obvious attempt to deflect blame for NRA’s financial woes – over $30 million in the red – and financial improprieties away from LaPierre and his executive team. All of this was followed by a formal request from Mike Bloomberg’s anti-gun conglomerate, calling on the IRS to launch a formal audit of the NRA’s tax exempt status.

There can be little doubt that the New York AG and others in positions of power will try to dismantle the NRA, regardless of what the board does. Our enemies see that we are wounded, and the vultures are circling. By cleaning their own house before any formal investigation, the board would demonstrate that they are living up to their fiduciary responsibilities, and that would go a long way toward mitigating the long-term damage from regulators.

The current NRA Board of Directors have a slim chance of saving the NRA from total ruin, but they must act swiftly and decisively.

They must expunge everyone involved in even the appearance of corruption. Including board members who failed in their oversight obligations and individuals like Josh Powell the genius behind many of the NRA's recent disasters like Carry Guard and a known manipulator of Wayne LaPierre's decision making. They must halt all outside contracts until they can be thoroughly reviewed and either canceled or renegotiated. As much as possible needs to be brought in-house and run under the direct oversight of the board. This action may mean the end of things like Ackerman McQueen run NRA-TV, so do not be surprised if they pack up shop one day soon.

All of the significant, life-threatening issues facing NRA revolve around just three operational areas: PR, fundraising, and political spending. Suspending operations in those three areas, and bringing them under tight, in-house control for the immediate future, would put the association back on stable ground and allow it to continue operating effectively.

There will undoubtedly be repercussions from all of this, including fines, sanctions, lawsuits, and possibly criminal indictments, but all of those repercussions are on their way, regardless of what the board does now. The difference is whether those consequences will be levied against an organization that still has the people who created those problems at the helm – people who will be using NRA resources to cover their tails – or an organization that has policed itself and taken corrective action to address its problems.

My take: I hate to compare the NRA to TV preachers, but this kind of crap is why I haven't given one penny to the NRA in over 25 years. I bust my ass to earn my money. I live modestly to say the least. Why would I donate my hard-earned money to people who use that money to finance wretched excess? I could smell the bloat and corruption in the NRA when the Brady Law and the 1994 AWB passed. Wayne LaPierre and his buddies were more concerned about saving their multi-thousand-dollar duck guns than protecting the rights of people who own black rifles. IF the NRA successfully reconfigures its existence into something leaner and more efficient, I might consider re-joining them. But I am NOT giving money to an organization to pay for expensive gourmet meals, high salaries, gifts, and other perks.

[1168]

I hate to compare the NRA to TV preachers,

But the shoe certainly fits.

[26 Inf]

Doc (and others) - I wonder if this was why Pete Brownell resigned so quickly?

[WillBrink]

Apparently, LaPierre was asked to step down:

"As has been widely reported, the NRA is facing internal challenges, both financial and organizational. They’re suing their longtime marketing and PR firm, Ackerman McQueen and have been accused by opponents and some in the gun rights community of uncontrolled spending and a lack of institutional control by management and board members.

According to someone we’ve spoken to who’s in a position to know, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre met with influential board members and fund-raisers last night and was asked for his resignation. The meeting reportedly became heated and LaPierre stormed out. He then responded to the demand with a scathing letter to those involved, refusing to step down."

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/20...RwOeOUxIts5X88

[Doc Safari]

Apparently, LaPierre was asked to step down:

"As has been widely reported, the NRA is facing internal challenges, both financial and organizational. They’re suing their longtime marketing and PR firm, Ackerman McQueen and have been accused by opponents and some in the gun rights community of uncontrolled spending and a lack of institutional control by management and board members.

According to someone we’ve spoken to who’s in a position to know, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre met with influential board members and fund-raisers last night and was asked for his resignation. The meeting reportedly became heated and LaPierre stormed out. He then responded to the demand with a scathing letter to those involved, refusing to step down."

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/20...RwOeOUxIts5X88

I see a huge black hole, and NRA is circling it.

They should have asked for his resignation in 1995.

At a time when we needed Superman, he decided to play Clark Kent. Great Big Puss. Except when they want to fire him.