All things NRA

tempo_n_groove

Halifax2TheMax said:

lindamarie73 said:

Just a heads up for all you gun owners out there, it's been taking longer then usual to get your FOID card renewed.  

Because of the Hillary-Obama cabal or because the Team Trump Treason Administration is fully staffed with people who can’t complete a form or operate a computer?

Illinois has a huge Dem presence in govt there.  I might lean on that first.  It's a state law and nothing to do with the President.

tempo_n_groove

mickeyrat said:

think I'll just put this here.

So SCOTUS refused to hear an appeal of Conn Supreme Courts ruling that the familes of Sandy Hook can sue Remington. This means that lawsuit can move forward....

Supreme Court Allows Sandy Hook Relatives to Sue Gun Maker https://nyti.ms/33FmV9n

I've said this many times, I disagree w suing the gun manufacturers.

Halifax2TheMax

NRA has been awwwwfullly quiet lately, awwwweefuly quiet like wascily wabbits. Devin Nunca? SDNY? Team Mueller? But they sure don’t mind spending your dues, if you’re a fool to dues, making their lives convenient, now do they?

jeffbr

Halifax2TheMax said:

NRA has been awwwwfullly quiet lately, awwwweefuly quiet like wascily wabbits. Devin Nunca? SDNY? Team Mueller? But they sure don’t mind spending your dues, if you’re a fool to dues, making their lives convenient, now do they?

They've been busy increasing Wayne's pay and cutting programs! Highlights include:
57% Increase in Wayne's pay
22% Cut for Education and Training
61% Cut for Hunters Services
51% Cut for Field Services

If you send $$$ to the NRA, it's going right into executive compensation at this point. Gone are the days of the NRA being about safety and education.

mickeyrat

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nra-boosted-executive-pay-while-cutting-funding-for-key-programs-filing-shows/2019/11/26/da4f3f60-0c61-11ea-a49f-9066f51640f6_story.html

by Beth Reinhard
November 26 at 8:09 PM EST
Compensation for top officials at the National Rifle Association surged by 41 percent last year, according to a new tax filing, as the nation’s largest pro-gun organization sharply reduced spending on programs central to its mission.

The jump from 2017 to 2018 for the NRA’s officers, directors and highly paid employees included a 57 percent increase for chief executive Wayne LaPierre that boosted his overall compensation to $2.15 million.

The filing also shows perks for top officials that are typically associated with the corporate world, including charter and first-class travel with companions as well as dues for health or social clubs. Those costs were not detailed, though the NRA filing says housing expenses were provided for five people.

During that same period, NRA spending plunged 22 percent for education and training, 61 percent for hunter services and 51 percent for field services, which includes organizing volunteers, fundraising for shooting sports and promoting the NRA at gun shows and other events, according to a previously released audit.

NRA officials said the raises resulted from a periodic analysis by a committee of board members. In response to questions about the program cuts, spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the NRA “eliminated costly advertising” in a number of program areas.

“Priority number one is investing in the projects and services that best serve our members and protect their Second Amendment freedoms,” Arulanandam said.

The pay hikes, coupled with program cuts, feed into a line of attack coming from some board members and firearms enthusiasts: that NRA leaders are putting their own financial interest above those of dues-paying members.

“Money flowing away from programs and into executives’ pockets is causing many longtime members to join the ranks of American gun owners who have lost faith in the NRA, especially its leadership,” said Rob Pincus, a firearms instructor and NRA lifetime member who is leading a petition drive to overhaul the group’s board.

According to the tax filing, legal fees more than tripled in 2018, to more than $25 million. For the first time, the tax filing lists the Texas law firm of William Brewer III as one of its most highly compensated contractors, receiving $13.8 million. Brewer has become one of LaPierre’s most trusted advisers despite his lack of experience in Second Amendment litigation. NRA officials stand by Brewer.

“We make no apologies for doubling down on the investment required to confront our enemies and unprecedented attacks on our members in 2018,” Arulanandam said.

[Just how bad are things at the National Rifle Association?]

The new tax filing helps fill in the financial picture of the NRA at the end of a tumultuous year for the gun lobby.

The drama began at the annual convention in April, when board president Oliver North was ousted after accusing LaPierre of overspending on legal fees. That clash was followed by leaks showing LaPierre spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothing and luxury travel. A court battle escalated between the NRA and its longtime public relations agency, Ackerman McQueen, while the Democratic attorneys general of New York and Washington, D.C. launched investigations into the tax-exempt group’s spending.

NRA officials have disputed North’s claims and said the clothes and travel were necessary for media appearances and fundraising. Eight of the 76 members of the board have resigned since the spring, some in protest of LaPierre’s leadership, while others have rallied behind the longtime chief executive as a powerful spokesman for gun rights.

To address concerns, LaPierre summoned members of the “Golden Ring of Freedom” — donors who have given at least $1 million — to huddle at the Virginia headquarters last month, according to attendees.

“The meeting was scheduled so he could explain to us what was really going on — the truth,” said Florida real estate developer John Rumpel, who said he has given about $2.8 million to the NRA. “I left without feeling suspicious about anything.”

More than two dozen of the donors — easily spotted at conventions in their custom-made gold jackets — were told that the NRA had conducted a line-by-line review of the budget and would emerge stronger than ever from the lawsuits and investigations, attendees said. LaPierre also disputed reports that he and his wife wanted the NRA to buy them a $6 million home in a gated golf community because of security concerns, saying that the real estate deal was Ackerman McQueen’s idea.

Ackerman McQueen has said it was alarmed when LaPierre sought the agency’s assistance with the real estate transaction.

NRA officials declined to discuss the Oct. 15 gathering with its top donors, which has not been previously reported.

“Mr. LaPierre meets regularly with NRA donors, grass-roots supporters and other stakeholders,” Arulanandam said. “As he has done for years, he confronts false allegations about the NRA head-on, and speaks about our mission in the 2020 election cycle.”

Donors said LaPierre told them a harrowing story about a false 911 call that sent the police to his Virginia home in the middle of the night in 2013. He was ordered to come out with his hands up, Rumpel said.

“I’ve offered him any and all of the five homes I own and my plane to move him around,” he said. “He has to travel around incognito.”

Another major donor who attended the meeting, Pat Hogan, chief executive of an Illinois-based auction house for antique firearms, also said he was worried about LaPierre’s safety. “The amount of abuse that Wayne takes — I would suggest he’s not paid enough, even with that increase,” he said.

But Hogan added that the NRA had turned over too much money and control to Ackerman McQueen, and that he regretted the departure in June of this year of the NRA’s chief political strategist, Chris Cox. The NRA has accused Cox in a lawsuit of being part of a “conspiracy” with North, which Cox has denied.

In 2018, Cox was among several top executives who received double-digit-percent increases in pay, according to the filing. He received nearly $1.4 million in compensation from the NRA and related entities, a 17 percent hike from the previous year. Twelve top officials received six-figure compensation packages, including two who left the NRA in 2016. Wilson Phillips, who served as treasurer through mid-September 2018, got $948,769 in compensation that year, up 34 percent.

mickeyrat

continued.....

Neither Cox nor Phillips responded to requests for comment.

According to the tax filings, charter travel was used “on occasions when travel logistics or security concerns precluded other available options.” LaPierre’s travel has come under scrutiny following revelations that about $250,000 was spent on his trips to locations such as Italy, Budapest and the Bahamas in recent years.

Members of the NRA’s board are not paid for overseeing the organization’s finances. But North, then the board’s president, received $1.38 million from Ackerman McQueen in 2018. Under that arrangement — the details of which the NRA has claimed were kept secret from the board — North appeared on NRATV, a platform that espoused gun rights.

North has said LaPierre authorized the contract and declined through his attorney to comment on the tax filing that showed the pay increases. Experts on nonprofit organizations say that board members who receive money from the one they oversee or its vendors can face conflicts of interest. The tax filings show another 11 board members were paid a total of more than $617,000 from the NRA, which has defended such payments as going toward services and membership recruitment.

In a year in which LaPierre weathered calls for his resignation, his base salary rose from $1.2 million in 2017 to $1.3 million in 2018; his bonus tripled to $455,000; and “other reportable compensation” climbed from about $45,000 to more than $427,000, the filing shows. La­Pierre also received an additional $73,793 in “retirement and other deferred compensation” and “nontaxable benefits” from the NRA and related entities.

NRA officials said LaPierre’s contributions are instrumental to the organization’s success.

beth.reinhard@washpost.com

Carol D. Leonnig and Julie Tate contributed to this report.

cincybearcat

Haven’t commented on the NRA for a while. I’ll just add my same sentiments.

1) They are a terrorist organization that enables mass murder
2) fuck the nra 

mickeyrat

  Inside Wayne LaPierre’s Battle for the N.R.A. https://nyti.ms/36If77S

mickeyrat

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nra-to-cut-salaries-brace-for-layoffs-as-coronavirus-disrupts-fundraising-internal-memo-states/2020/03/24/4a7d47ac-6d63-11ea-96a0-df4c5d9284af_story.html

By Beth Reinhard
March 24 at 7:30 AM ET
The National Rifle Association is cutting salaries 20 percent and bracing for layoffs, as the coronavirus pandemic forces the nonprofit to cancel its annual meeting set for April and a wide range of upcoming fundraisers and programs, according to a memo to staffers from the nonprofit’s leadership Monday.

More than 800 people worked at the NRA in 2018, according to its latest tax filing, although that number includes part-time workers who would not be affected by the reductions. Schedules for hourly workers will be reduced from five to four days a week, the memo said.

Some top NRA officials, including chief executive Wayne LaPierre, are taking salary reductions greater than 20 percent, according to a person familiar with the cuts who was not authorized to speak publicly about them.

In 2018, compensation for top officials, including LaPierre, surged by 41 percent and legal fees more than tripled, according to the organization’s tax filing, even as the nation’s largest gun rights organization sharply reduced spending on programs central to its mission. LaPierre received a total of about $2.2 million from the NRA and related entities in 2018, including a base salary of $1.27 million, tax documents show.

LaPierre withstood calls for his resignation last year amid allegations of lavish spending on travel, clothing and legal fees. NRA officials have staunchly defended their stewardship as the Democratic attorneys general of Washington and New York investigate the tax-exempt group’s spending.

“We must address immediate financial challenges and, as importantly, plan for long-term impacts to ensure the viability of our organization during this crucial year,” LaPierre said in the memo describing the pay cuts and proposed layoffs. “Unfortunately, these changes will necessitate the elimination of certain positions on either a temporary or, in some cases, permanent basis.”

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The memo said that due to public health guidance and state or local restrictions, all Friends of NRA banquets across the country were canceled as were gun shows, recruitment stations and other income-generating activities.

“We believe these actions will favorably position the Association leading up to the November election,” an NRA spokesman said.

 The NRA’s political arm spent a record-setting $30 million in 2016 to help elect President Trump.

The organization ended 2018 with a $2.7 million shortfall in 2018, compared with a $17.8 million shortfall the previous year and a hole of $45.8 million in 2016, according to NRA tax filings.

mickeyrat

NRA reports alleged misspending by current and former executives to IRS

By

Beth Reinhard and 

Carol D. Leonnig

November 25, 2020

After years of denying allegations of lax financial oversight, the National Rifle Association has made a stunning declaration in a new tax filing: Current and former executives used the nonprofit group’s money for personal benefit and enrichment.

The NRA said in the filing that it continues to review the alleged abuse of funds, as the tax-exempt organization curtails services and runs up multimillion-dollar legal bills. The assertion of impropriety comes four months after the attorney general of New York state filed a lawsuit accusing NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and other top executives of using NRA funds for decades to provide inflated salaries and expense accounts.

The tax return, which The Washington Post obtained from the organization, says the NRA “became aware during 2019 of a significant diversion of its assets.” The 2019 filing states that LaPierre and five former executives received “excess benefits,” a term the IRS uses to describe executives’ enriching themselves at the expense of a nonprofit entity.

The disclosures in the tax return suggest that the organization is standing by its 71-year-old chief executive while continuing to pursue former executives of the group. The filing says that LaPierre “corrected” his financial lapses with a repayment and contends that former executives “improperly” used NRA funds or charged the nonprofit for expenses that were “not appropriate.”

LaPierre has reimbursed the organization nearly $300,000 in travel expenses covering 2015 to 2019, according to the tax return, which does not explain how that amount was determined or when LaPierre paid it.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said in a statement this week that “the vast majority of Mr. LaPierre’s travel was undertaken in strict compliance with NRA policy.”

In response to questions from The Post, NRA executives said the organization is financially strong and closely adhering to nonprofit law. “As its tax filing demonstrates, the NRA is committed to strict compliance with its accounting controls and good­governance practices,” said Charles Cotton, an NRA vice president and audit committee chair.

The tax filing acknowledges that there are disputes over the alleged financial abuses the NRA blames on the departed officers, including former board president Oliver North and former chief lobbyist Chris Cox.

Some of those executives parted ways with LaPierre over his leadership and are cooperating with the New York attorney general’s investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation.

In another disclosure in the tax return, the NRA said it is investigating unnamed board members for flying first class without authorization.

Three tax and accounting experts who reviewed the 2019 tax return for The Post said the disclosures show the organization and LaPierre trying to take responsibility and avoid further legal jeopardy.

“This is the type of cleanup I would expect to see after a history of gross violations of nonprofit law,” said Philip Hackney, an associate professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh who worked at the IRS for five years until 2011 providing legal oversight of tax-exempt organizations.

LaPierre personally signed the 2019 tax return; such a document is customarily signed by the organization’s treasurer. “He is putting himself on the line, under penalties of perjury, which is what you do if you are trying to get in someone’s good graces,” Hackney said.

New York lawyer and expert on nonprofits Daniel Kurtz said, “It’s a smart move by the NRA instead of digging in their heels, though who knows how they came up with the numbers. It’s an admission of wrongdoing, for sure.”

In her lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, alleged a much larger misappropriation of funds, seeking to shut down the nation’s largest gun rights organization and oust LaPierre.

“For years, Wayne LaPierre and his lieutenants skirted the law and pocketed millions from NRA coffers to fund lavish lifestyles that included private jets, pricey vacations, expensive meals and no-show contracts,” James said this week. “Mr. LaPierre’s reimbursement of just a fraction of the millions he personally profited from indicates how the NRA went unchecked under his leadership.”

LaPierre has called the lawsuit unconstitutional, casting James as a liberal anti-gun activist who has long sought to destroy the gun lobby.

The New York suit alleges that LaPierre funneled personal expenses through the NRA’s former public relations and advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, and failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal income. Executives at Ackerman McQueen have said that all of their financial arrangements were approved by LaPierre.

James said in August that she was referring her findings to the IRS. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the agency was investigating LaPierre for possible criminal tax fraud related to his personal taxes.

According to two people familiar with a deposition LaPierre gave last year in litigation between the NRA and Ackerman McQueen, the chief executive said he never reported as personal income the travel and entertainment expenses the NRA paid on his behalf because he thought those benefits were provided as part of his leadership role at the organization.

LaPierre declined an interview request from The Post through his new personal attorney, Kent Correll.

Of the reported IRS inquiry, Correll said, “We are unaware of any inquiry, therefore it would be premature to comment.”

The new tax documents portray an organization trimming costs and struggling as membership dues and other revenue declined even before the coronavirus pandemic curbed charitable fundraising nationwide. The NRA reported a $12.2 million operating shortfall last year, up from $2.7 million the previous year. This is the fourth year in a row the organization has reported spending more than it took in.

The one area where the NRA’s expenses are growing: legal costs, which soared in 2019 to $38.5 million from $25 million in 2018. Ackerman McQueen was the NRA’s highest paid contractor for years, churning out provocative marketing campaigns and broadcasts, until the relationship disintegrated in a litigious squabble last year. Now the NRA’s single largest vendor is the Dallas law firm headed by William Brewer, which was paid nearly $25 million last year.

Arulanandam called the legal costs “an investment in the future of the NRA.” He added: “NRA members expect us to use our resources to defend their constitutional freedoms — not avoid the fight.”

In the latest legal setback, New York insurance regulators announced last week that the NRA is barred from selling insurance in the state for five years and will pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle charges of illegally marketing insurance to gun owners involved in self-defense shootings. The NRA said in a statement that it had “successfully resolved” the matter.

That LaPierre remains at the NRA helm despite months of turmoil is a testament to his tenacity as the face of the American gun lobby for decades.

Since his leadership was challenged at a raucous annual meeting in the spring of 2019. LaPierre has weathered revelations that he spent hundreds of thousands of the nonprofit’s dollars on luxury menswear and travel, and that the NRA considered buying him a multimillion-dollar estate in Texas. Some board members and veteran staffers walked away in protest, accusing LaPierre and other executives of self-dealing and alleging that the group had strayed from its core mission of promoting firearm ownership.

“LaPierre would have stepped aside a long time ago if his concern was really for the institution,” said Rob Pincus, a lifetime NRA member who has led a campaign to overhaul the organization. “He remains a distraction and a detraction.”

Cox resigned in June 2019 after LaPierre accused him and North of orchestrating a coup — a claim they both denied. The tax return says the organization is seeking to recover more than $1 million it says Cox improperly received for travel, meals and tickets to sporting events.

Cox’s lawyer, Tom Buchanan, called the allegation “false” and said all of the lobbyist’s expenses during his 24 years with the NRA were reviewed and never questioned. Buchanan said also that Cox has provided the New York attorney general with “thousands of documents” and has not been implicated in her investigation.

North was ousted as NRA president last year after accusing LaPierre of spending recklessly on legal fees for Brewer’s firm. The new tax filing says the NRA has “reason to believe” North received excess salary that he failed to earn. North declined through his attorney to comment on the tax return.

North has previously argued that the NRA has falsely accused him of financial improprieties in retaliation for his cooperating as a key witness in the New York investigation, according to pleadings in New York State Court.

“In public, the NRA has said these allegations of misspending were completely unfounded, but these official filings present a picture that a lot of the claims made were accurate and the only question is who was at fault,” said Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State University.

On Nov. 18, after NRA members complained that Brewer’s firm should not represent both the NRA and LaPierre, the chief executive notified the court in Texas that he had hired his own lawyer, Correll.

Correll previously worked in Brewer’s firm.

Three other former NRA executives are accused in the tax return of receiving “excess benefits.” They are Wilson “Woody” Phillips, who was treasurer; Joshua Powell, who had been chief of staff to LaPierre; and David Lehman, who was a lobbyist. Powell declined to comment. Phillips and Lehman could not be reached this week after repeated phone calls from The Post.

Last year, compensation for top NRA executives rose by 41 percent, with LaPierre receiving a total of about $2.2 million from the NRA and related entities even as pension benefits for employees have been frozen. By comparison, the previous year, he received about $1.4 million. Executive salaries declined only slightly in 2019, and the NRA continued to hand out six-figure bonuses to four top executives, including LaPierre, the tax filing shows.

The NRA also continued to direct money to some board members for providing various services, according to the return, a practice tax experts say can cloud a board’s independent oversight.

For the first time in years, the NRA filing acknowledged the dual and potentially conflicting roles held by board member Marion Hammer, a longtime consultant who was paid $220,350 last year. She did not respond to requests for comment by phone and email. Seven other board members received a total of $175,000 in side agreements with the organization, the filing shows.

During the same period, the group slashed spending on hunter services by 63 percent; public affairs by 52 percent; legislative programs by 17 percent; and safety education, training, gun shows and exhibits by 16 percent, according to an audit filed this year with North Carolina charity regulators.

NRA spokesman Arulanandam said the organization “has never been better positioned to execute its legislative and political agenda — leading the protection of America’s constitutional freedoms.”

In the spring of 2020, as the coronavirus forced states to close business and schools, the NRA announced that it was cutting salaries, canceling fundraising activities and gun shows, and laying off employees to “favorably position the Association leading up to the November election,” according to a statement from a spokesman at the time.

But the NRA also cut its spending on political campaigns.

The group’s political arm allocated less than $17 million for President Trump’s reelection, according to Federal Election Commission records, compared with the $30 million it spent to help elect Trump in 2016.

Bill Powers, the executive vice president for communications at Ackerman McQueen, said the financial statements lay out the NRA’s steady decline as the organization faced a raft of defectors questioning LaPierre’s leadership, and as more of its money went into scorched-earth legal battles to defend LaPierre. “You have just seen an election where the NRA was sidelined,” he said.

John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, which supports gun control measures, said, “Put simply, they put their limited money on Donald Trump and lost big time.”

Arulanandam said the NRA helped pro-gun Republicans pick up seats in the House and in state legislatures in this month’s election.

The tax return shows membership dues falling 34 percent in 2019, to $113 million. Arulanandam called those figures “dated information.” He said that donations and grass-roots support are “surging” and that the NRA added 300,000 members in the past six months.

The NRA continues to rely on its charitable arm, the NRA Foundation, according to the tax return. It received $12 million in grants and is paying off a $5 million loan from the foundation. The two entities share employees, office space and other resources, and the NRA sought about $15 million in reimbursements from the foundation in 2019.

The relationship between the NRA and the foundation is the subject of a lawsuit by D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D), who contends that the foundation has strayed from its legal duty to pursue charitable activities and instead has been used to cover the NRA’s deficits.

NRA executives have said that the financial statements are audited and that the organization uses best practices in accounting and governance.

Bentleyspop

Sending thoughts and prayers to the nra 

mickeyrat

U.S. trustee opposes NRA bankruptcy petition in blow to gun rights group

By

Tom Hamburger

May 3, 2021 at 9:51 p.m. EDT

A U.S. bankruptcy administrator asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss the National Rifle Association’s efforts to declare bankruptcy or appoint a trustee or examiner to oversee the gun rights organization — a setback for the group at the close of a federal court hearing to consider its petition.

The recommendation bolstered the arguments of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), whose office has fought the NRA’s attempts to relocate from New York to Texas, and came after senior NRA executives acknowledged in court testimony that they received lavish perks.

Lisa Lambert, a lawyer with the U.S. trustee’s office — which participates in bankruptcy cases to protect taxpayer interests and enforce bankruptcy laws — told the court that the evidence presented in the hearing showed that the nonprofit organization lacked proper oversight and that personal expenses were masked as business costs.

Adam Levitin, a bankruptcy expert at the Georgetown University Law Center, said the position of the trustee — a Justice Department official who typically remains neutral in a bankruptcy proceeding — does not bode well for the NRA.

“I don’t see how the NRA pulls off a win here,” he said, adding: “I think it’s pretty clear that the NRA loses. The real question is what the remedy will be.”

In court Monday, NRA lawyer Greg Garman expressed disappointment in Lambert’s comments, saying: “We have natural enemies. This Department of Justice may not see eye to eye with the National Rifle Association, but so be it, we have done the right thing.”

The NRA began considering bankruptcy last year after James filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the gun rights organization, alleging that senior NRA executives used the organization to benefit themselves and their friends.

The NRA responded by accusing the attorney general of pursuing a political agenda. The group announced in January that it was declaring bankruptcy and moving from New York, where it was founded in 1871, to Texas, where the state attorney general and other officials offered a warm welcome.

On Monday, Gerrit Pronske, an attorney for New York state, called the gun lobby’s attempted move “a circus sideshow” designed to avoid legal accountability, warning that approving its reorganization plan risked turning bankruptcy courts into “a haven for wrongdoers.”

Garman countered that the bankruptcy plan was vital to the survival and future success of what he termed “an irreplaceable” civil rights organization.

“There is no one who stands in the breach to defend the Second Amendment other than the NRA,” Garman said in his closing arguments Monday afternoon.

The NRA has said it is in sound financial condition but needs to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because of the existential threat presented by James’s lawsuit.

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre acknowledges he did not disclose bankruptcy plans or luxury yacht trips to other top officials

Judge Harlin Hale is weighing the complex case from his Dallas courtroom, hearing requests via Webex videoconference from New York state and other parties to dismiss the NRA bankruptcy petition, and if that fails, to appoint a trustee to run the organization while it is in bankruptcy.

Hale has said he expects to issue a decision in about a week.

The hearing called renewed attention to the inner workings of the long-powerful gun lobby as President Biden and congressional Democrats have called for new gun regulations following a rash of deadly shootings across the country.

The NRA submitted a reorganization plan Monday that calls for payment of outstanding debts and leaving in place the current management — including longtime NRA chief Wayne LaPierre. The plan was approved Sunday in a closed-door meeting of the NRA board, according to a person familiar with the vote, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the session.

NRA lawyers argued throughout the bankruptcy hearing that LaPierre has been an effective manager and a fundraising powerhouse for the group, which says it has more than 5 million members. The lawyers said LaPierre has imposed more rigorous fiscal management in recent years and noted that the reorganization plan calls for a compliance officer, a new position in the organization.

Under questioning from New York state’s attorneys, LaPierre acknowledged that he did not disclose receiving lavish perks, including access to luxurious yachts and $300,000 in suits from an exclusive Beverly Hills boutique.

The hearing also pulled back the curtain on the internal actions of top NRA officials.

Several witnesses testified that LaPierre did not inform the full NRA board or its general counsel of plans to declare bankruptcy before announcing it publicly.

And the NRA’s current president, Carolyn Meadows, acknowledged in testimony read into the record that she destroyed notes and records in advance of a subpoena from the New York attorney general. Meadows testified that the records that were discarded included personal and medical information.

Attorneys for the NRA acknowledged during the hearing that “cringeworthy activity” had occurred in the past — but they maintained governance had improved under LaPierre, who they said showed a willingness to fire NRA executives who had misused their positions.

“It is very, very true that we don’t run from what happened before 2018, but, your honor, we are safe, we are secure, we are a well-run organization,” Garman said Monday. “We have responsible new parties in place to ensure that the transparency, the trustworthiness that the court and the parties require is here.”

 

Bentleyspop

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1391428096214110212?s=19

brianlux

Bentleyspop said:

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1391428096214110212?s=19

God bless our gun totin' mommies and their sweet little shoot 'em up girls in curls.  So sweet.

Is it just me, or does that kid look demon possessed?

tempo_n_groove

brianlux said:

Bentleyspop said:

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1391428096214110212?s=19

God bless our gun totin' mommies and their sweet little shoot 'em up girls in curls.  So sweet.

Is it just me, or does that kid look demon possessed?

Children of the corn yo!

tempo_n_groove

Bentleyspop said:

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1391428096214110212?s=19

I'm a big 2A guy.  I never really want to be seen like this to share w people though.  It's part of my brain that doesn't work that way.  You shouldn't know what I have.

Halifax2TheMax

I really hope Wayne’s world implodes. Keep giving, you can fund his legal defense.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/11/politics/national-rifle-association-bankruptcy/index.html

tempo_n_groove

Halifax2TheMax said:

I really hope Wayne’s world implodes. Keep giving, you can fund his legal defense.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/11/politics/national-rifle-association-bankruptcy/index.html

Unions are next!

Halifax2TheMax

tempo_n_groove said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

I really hope Wayne’s world implodes. Keep giving, you can fund his legal defense.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/11/politics/national-rifle-association-bankruptcy/index.html

Unions are next!

Ummm, sure.

brianlux

tempo_n_groove said:

brianlux said:

Bentleyspop said:

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1391428096214110212?s=19

God bless our gun totin' mommies and their sweet little shoot 'em up girls in curls.  So sweet.

Is it just me, or does that kid look demon possessed?

Children of the corn yo!

Now that's some scary shit!