NRA, faithful stewardship

[A.J. Holst]

WLP appears to being living the lobbyists dream, questionable expenses and a law firm unwilling to provide invoice details

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2019/05/daniel-zimmerman/nra-documents-reveal-brewer-law-firm-spending-lapierre-expense-details/

Had no idea the NRA had offices in Budapest.

[DaveTN]

I don’t have a dog in this fight, but it appears to me if the NRA is going to survive; LaPierre, Ackerman-McQueen marketing, and William Brewer's Law Firm need to all be gone and they need to be gone today.

[A.J. Holst]

1 hour ago, DaveTN said:

I don’t have a dog in this fight, but it appears to me if the NRA is going to survive; LaPierre, Ackerman-McQueen marketing, and William Brewer's Law Firm need to all be gone and they need to be gone today.

I'm with Dave.

How could have those dollars been better spent?

He is a risk taker, hiring an Italian driver, I believe they are all in training for Formula 1

[Chucktshoes]

Here’s a separate link to a document dump containing jpeg scans of a host of internal docs. 

 

ftp://67.190.79.35/sda1/nra2019documents1-clean/

 

WLP has to go now if the NRA is to survive and continue the work. 

[DaveTN]

Quote

 

New York Attorney General Letitia James has opened an investigation into the tax-exempt status of the organization, which is chartered in New York.

“The Office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James has launched an investigation related to the National Rifle Association (NRA). As part of this investigation, the Attorney General has issued subpoenas,” James wrote in a statement, noting the office will not comment further.

 

Good grief, the Dems have to be foaming at the mouth. Letitia James getting a shot at the NRA in the state of NY. I doubt she will stop at tax -exempt status.

[MacGyver]

I was afraid to open this thread - thinking they were somehow marketing a new membership level to evangelicals.  

At least it wasn’t that.  

I’m to the point that I really believe that the NRA may simply have too much baggage to continue to represent gun owners without spending at least as much time defending themselves.  This wouldn’t be a terrible situation if there were other groups that could muster the resources to fight court cases while the NRA takes the heat.  

It’s clear that what got the NRA to this point won’t get them where they need to be in the future.  

I’d love to see an advocacy organization that’s as diverse as the gun community is. 

But, it’s also clear that anyone that wants to boot LaPierre and the current leadership structure better get up pretty early in the morning.  Oliver North just found that out the hard way.  There’s still a lot of money - and a lot of power at stake. They care about that more than they do the second amendment or anything else.  They’re not going to give it up without a bloody fight.  

[GlockSpock]

They are, a this point and in my opinion, nearly/likely just as bad for gun owners as good for us.

I'd love to see the entire organization restructured and filled with people more interested in rights than status.

[GlockSpock]

I've as much told the poor people when they call me I'll donate to the NRA again when they become a pro-gun organization. They...don't know how to respond to that.

 

[btq96r]

11 hours ago, MacGyver said:

There’s still a lot of money - and a lot of power at stake. They care about that more than they do the second amendment or anything else.  They’re not going to give it up without a bloody fight.  

Using a "money is like drugs in various forms" analogy, some senior members of the NRA are at full junkie status.

Making a lot in salary is like weed...feels good, tends to become a lifestyle enhancer, an individual may or may not be sated based on their personality. 

Making a lot of salary, and being able to decrease your taxable income by running expenses that brush legitimacy through a corporation is like cocaine...much more of a rush than weed, but leaves you wanting more.

Making a lot of salary, and having personal expenses taken care of (or at the least a lifestyle funded) in a way that never even hits your income before expense reduction or equalization...that's the heroin right there, and you're always after the perpetual high.  Going back to a mundane life of the first two options, no matter how much better you have it than the small-folk, is to be avoided like the plague.  No surprise to me that WLP is ready to go to the mattresses to keep his status and what it enables.  Wouldn't bat an eye if call girls are brought up before it's all said and done...certainly it's about the only routine thing left in a situation like this.

I will concede that the NRA needs to pay some folks a high salary.  For those living in the DC Metro area alone, you need to pay commensurate to the market.  For top level people, you need to pay them in the ballpark for their sector of work, though working for a cause like the NRA should count for something (you would think).  But that only enables the weed stage as described above...the NRA has ventured far into cocaine and heroin, and that's going to take a lot of institutional willpower if they want to take the road to recovery.  NY State may throw them in a metaphorical detox before they get to that point, however. 

Having bashed the NRA for their behavior, I'm not really shocked at this because it was always about the money to me.  But just how fast and loose they are playing things is a bit surprising.  I expected the usual stuff like using an expense policy to fund vacations, generous vehicle mileage, or even organization vehicles assigned, things that you are far more likely to sign off on when it's not your money at stake.  Seems there isn't even a modicum of adherence to some guiding rules for their own protection.  I mean, seriously...paying the President of the organization through the PR firm is flabbergasting.  Non-profits are always going to be under a microscope with financial accounting, and that's a good thing.  If they didn't see this day coming, they were idiots.  This isn't a private partnership taking expenses at the depletion of their own payouts, it's a non-profit using money raised from the public because [INSERT BOOGEYMAN HERE] is coming for your guns.

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by btq96r

[Moped]

Honestly, when a regime is in place for a long period of time, like WLP and his cronies, it becomes currupt, as we are beginning to see.  And the now I believe the chickens are about to come home to roost.  

[Defender]

I hate to see the organization fold, but if they dont get right very soon, i see no recourse.  The liberal states are just looking for ways to shut them down, just because of the gun thing, but will use anything to attain their goal.  An to be honest, if they are doing as I'm reading, they deserve a drastic restructuring.

[btq96r]

11 hours ago, Moped said:

Honestly, when a regime is in place for a long period of time, like WLP and his cronies, it becomes currupt, as we are beginning to see.  And the now I believe the chickens are about to come home to roost.  

This is why large organizations get a C-Suite and a Board of Directors.  A good board will keep the executive team in check, or reign them in as needed.  Sometimes both elements go off the rails, but WLP could and should have been reigned in by effective oversight well before it got to this.  I'm just not clear if they were unwilling or unable to do so since I admittedly don't know how much the NRA board gets into things.

Edited May 14, 2019 by btq96r

[Oh Shoot]

Word is filtering down through even the most news-adverse parts of the membership, and I see no way the NRA is going to remain particularly influential unless LaPierre and Cox depart. Maybe some others high up also, including perhaps much of the existing BOD.

I see Allen West agrees:

5 hours ago, xtriggerman said:

West & North know where they stand on the NRA compass..... God Bless these guys.

https://theoldschoolpatriot.com/statement-regarding-nra/

One of the mantras of the left has for some time been "don't fear the NRA", and this whole scandal simply amplifies that.

Though I've often been critical of its PR methods, I had no idea that the NRA operated like this. The fact it's in the red at all, let alone due to mismanagement and greed (and perhaps outright illegal graft), shocks even a cynic like me.

If I'm any example, it will be suffering financially more than ever in short order (I'm an endowment member, and wish I could get a frigging refund).

- OS

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by Oh Shoot

[DaveTN]

On 5/12/2019 at 12:40 PM, Chucktshoes said:

Here’s a separate link to a document dump containing jpeg scans of a host of internal docs. 

ftp://67.190.79.35/sda1/nra2019documents1-clean/

WLP has to go now if the NRA is to survive and continue the work. 

I downloaded those before they disappear. I haven’t read them all yet, but there is plenty of interesting reading there.

It saddens me that the NRA has shown its belly to the gun hate groups and to Prosecutors that would love to take them down.

[Grayfox54]

The leaders of the NRA have become as bad as the congress critters on capitol hill. Greedy and corrupt. I've long been tired of their "compromise" attitude. It seems the dogs in this fight have been neutered. Its high time for a major overhaul. 

[bersaguy]

I got mail from them 4 times in a 2 week period and all they are wanting is money every time. Two of the requests for me to renew my membership which I did that last month but evidently they must have missed that part. I am a member or GOA also and they do have their act together and I will rmain with them. Not sure if I will renew with NRA next year. 

[DaveTN]

7 minutes ago, bersaguy said:

I am a member or GOA

Curious what made you pick GOA over SAF? I’ll probably join one or the other but not both.

[bersaguy]

3 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

Curious what made you pick GOA over SAF? I’ll probably join one or the other but not both.

In all honesty Dave I have never heard of the SAF but I was getting a limited amount of emails about things the GOA is involved in which right now they have a case in the Supreme Court and they are proving they are for the 2nd Amendment and gun owners. They seem to be doing what the NRA did 20+ years ago that they are not doing now.

[Chucktshoes]

New developments: Chris Cox has been suspended. Man, the NRA is going down in flames, and fast. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/nra-lawsuit-wayne-lapierre-chris-cox.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

[MacGyver]

Huh. 

[peejman]

10 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

New developments: Chris Cox has been suspended. Man, the NRA is going down in flames, and fast. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/nra-lawsuit-wayne-lapierre-chris-cox.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Big business in America.  Oh, the drama...      They're doing a fine job using our money to keep all those lawyers employed. 

[btq96r]

9 hours ago, peejman said:

Big business in America.  Oh, the drama...      They're doing a fine job using our money to keep all those lawyers employed. 

I'm sure there are a few of them that are actually loathe to go to another steakhouse on a weeknight, but feel a sense of responsibility.  Woe are they, I suppose.  Whateves, they aren't doing it with my dime.

[Chucktshoes]

 

[Garufa]

38 minutes ago, Chucktshoes said:

 

Damn shame it’s gotten to this point.  Not that Hickok is the be-all, end-all of the gun community, but I agree with him.

The NRA needs to straighten out and do it now.  They cannot afford ANY type of internal strife, nor can gun owners.  

[Grayfox54]

Hickok makes a good point. We, the general membership, have no clue what's really going on at the top levels of the NRA or where this in-fighting is going. 

OTOH, I've often expressed my frustration with the current NRA leadership over their compromise attitude and just barely protecting our rights. I've never made a secret of that. Personally, I've never liked WLP.  I've long thought it was past time for him to go. But then, as already pointed out, we don't have the details about what's really going on. And that, in itself, is part of the problem. Too many secrets and too much dirty laundry that the membership has not been told about. 

Whatever is going on, it needs to be dealt with and resolved quickly for the good of not only the members, but for every gun owner in this country.

Edited to add: There are a couple of gun shows I plan to attend next month. I plan on stopping by the NRA booth and telling them exactly how I feel. I suggest that you all do the same. 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Grayfox54