[David] Dell’Aquila spent an intense year working around the clock, putting questions to the [NRA] chief executive and the board but rarely getting answers back. Employees, he said, began privately coming to him with inside information.
If he has criticisms of LaPierre, he reserves his biggest complaints for the board of directors who have remained overwhelmingly loyal to the NRA leadership despite mounting evidence of alleged malpractice. “Wayne couldn’t have done all this stuff – the trips to the Bahamas, the special security, the suits, the private jets – without the board. They have financial oversight, they can demand documents. They could convene a vote and get Wayne out, so why don’t they?”
Over the past 20 years, the NRA has created a mythology around itself that portrays it as an unassailable, united, unstoppable force at the heart of conservative America. But as the edifice begins to crumble, voices like that of Dell’Aquila – coming from the inside – are finally beginning to be heard.
For his part, he hopes that his class action will prevail and that on the back of it the $64m will be repaid, the current board will be replaced, and that a new NRA will emerge from the ashes. He believes one other thing must happen – LaPierre must be forced out.
“I’m not pro-Wayne, I’m not negative-Wayne. I’m objective Wayne,” he said. “For the good of the NRA – Wayne must go.”
– Ed Pilkington in ‘Wayne must go’ – the staunch NRA supporter out to take down LaPierre
The NRA and all of its assets belongs to the dues paying members not Wayne LaPierre and the BOD and needs to be returned to them. The New York Attorney General’s suit does not recognize this simple fact and therefore should be regarded as political grandstanding at election time.
Yes “We are the NRA”.
Exactly!
I hope Dell’Aquila can lead a Federal class action lawsuit against the NRA leadership and the NY AG to ensure and protect the rights of NRA members.
As a Benefactor Life Member, the only real say I have in the organization is to vote for board members. I have always focused on voting for board candidates that are strong 2A activists (which is one of the main functions of the NRA). I can’t think of how I could have done anything differently as the board itself has a non-negotable fiduciary duty to the membership that they have failed to uphold.
I stopped giving to the NRA and will not give any money until the alleged corruption is eliminated and the NRA gets back to its mission.
Max,
Another Benefactor Life Member here. Your comments could have been mine including suspension of donations. Abolishing the NRA while recovering money (and probably keeping it) as the NY Attorney General kind of leaves the membership out of the loop so I am also hoping Dell’Aquila’s suit gives the organization back to the members.
One point I have wondered about is “should the NRA be rechartered in a more gun friendly state” and I think the answer is no. New York was gun friendly not long ago and might become so again as New York City depopulates in response to the pandemic and progressive politicians actions. Also some of these people apparently are seeing the utility of guns for self protection as they flee the city.
You said it perfectly…”We are the NRA”. That’s why the organization consists of paid memberships and not unattached donations.
“One point I have wondered about is “should the NRA be rechartered in a more gun friendly state” and I think the answer is no. New York was gun friendly not long ago and might become so again . . . “
So, we leave NY now, and when the time comes when NY becomes gun friendly “once again”, we can weigh all of the alternatives and decide if we want to go back there then.
Yet another Benefactor Life Member here. Same, I haven’t given and won’t until they get their priorities straight. The priority is not enriching Wayne, supporting his mistress or lifestyle or generally wining and dining. It is funding action not simply to deflect and defer anti Second Amendment actions, but to launch aggressive action to beat them down and promote a Constitutional right.
Think what $64 million plus now the costs of defending against NY and DC (and probably other me-too states) could have done for the Civil Rights Defense Fund? https://www.nradefensefund.org/home.aspx (and yes, you can donate to them directly and I don’t think it hits the general fund).
If you consider the 19th Century not long ago.
The only thing that could possibly ever overturn the racist and unconstitutional Sullivan Laws would be a direct challenge from the US Attorney General with the full force of the DoJ. Until then, NY will remain a “may issue” state.
Ditto!
Both things are true.
The NRA has been horribly mismanaged. Funds stolen by the millions, the Board of Directors either negligent in their duty to the members or outright thieves themselves*. These crimes and failures are massive and scream for prosecution no matter the political leanings of the NY and DC prosecutors.
The NY and DC prosecutors have a deeply biased political agenda. Were the NRA perfectly clean in its finances and leadership they would still be looking for ways to kill it off.
Wayne La Pierre and Friends have thus handed the NY and DC prosecutors their dream scenario.
(*To Be Fair – there are some BoD members who are hapless pawns in this, others who tried to challenge WLP and were sidelined, powerless)
Many of the BoD have been neglecting their duties. There are a lot who don’t even bother to show up, especially the celebrities. If they didn’t want to do the job, they shouldn’t have run.
Yes, Scott and our tax dollars don’t belong to the politicians. I used to believe too Reply is to first post here
Reckon I better mow today
Buy a sheep or sheeps if your yard is big, and a goat takes care of the weeds.
Thank you Mr. Dell’Aquila for your work in this area.
We’re long past discussions on whether or not WLP needs to go, it’s the mechanics of removal that needs to occur…
Yeah…similar to the mechanics needed to oust Pelosi, Schumer, Feinstein, Waters, Durbin, Newsom, Gretchen, Pritzker, Cuomo, DeBlasio, Garcetti,…
(pauses to flip forward thru the stack of pages)
Geez, this is a long list.
For WLP. It doesn’t matter how good the suit is, $h!t in a suit is still $h!t in a suit.
Vaseline on brake rotors? God forbid something bad should happen.
stops them from squealing
A NRA that might try to compliment/compete with GOA and SAF would be a grand outcome. But first gotta call snake for the whole escape from New York part.
Wayne, all the officers, and the entire board need to go. A new board of less than 20 members needs to take control, maybe his lawsuit will prevail.
I’m willing to be reasonable.
They can interview for their board position…
Yeah but the size needs to drop to 20 at most. More like 12-15. A board with near 80 members can’t be effective, as evidenced by the situation we’re in.
It worked exactly as designed– to disenfranchise the membership. They claimed it was to prevent anti’s from taking over. Seriously though, even Bloombucks giving $.75B for 5M 5-year memberships seems far fetched. The percentage of eligible and actively voting members drops it some, but it’s still giving us quite a while use those funds, especially with 1/3 being elected at a time. He also needs to find enough voters who will follow through and aren’t NRA supporters sneaking in to counter him.
Until Wayne LaPierre and every last one of his sycophants is rooted out of the organization there is no hope or future for it and not one more penny for it.
I won’t give a penny either anymore. I used to every year and get my American Rifleman magazine but I stopped.
Everything needs replaced top to bottom at the NRA.
I quit being a member years ago because this crap but I still believe in what the NRA used to stand for and when it gets its leadership straightened out will be a member again but I do think they should move the HQ.to a gun-friendly state like Fl.
Hopefully the NRA can be restored and come back to relevance, and doesn’t go full Leftard after a scandal, like the Boy Scouts did.
And the BSA is bankrupt now, too. Serves them right.
That’s because it started (as many orgs did, such as YMCA, most universities, many hospitals, etc.) as a Christian/faith based organization, with like-minded participants over the generations. Once BSA announced that they would allow men who openly admit an attraction to males to have oversight over groups of young males, the parents of tens of thousands of those young males said adios, buckaroo. You ain’t taking my Johnny on that camping trip in the woods, and I’m no longer sending my money, either.
The Girl Scouts haven’t fared much better after they declared political warfare on white conservative men several years ago (and jacked up their cookies from $2 to $5/box overnight).
Perfect examples of “get woke, go broke”.
“The Girl Scouts haven’t fared much better after they declared political warfare on white conservative men several years ago (and jacked up their cookies from $2 to $5/box overnight).”
An adult woman at a Girl Scout Cookie table outside my local supermarket gave me a strange look when I asked how many boxes of cookies do I need to buy to get my own Girl Scout.
Why was that?
(I still bought the tasty-yet-overpriced cookies, I’m not that heartless… 😉 )
If Wayne & the BOD care about the organization, they will do the right thing; before the lawsuit destroys the organization. Either they truly represent and care about the people that fund them, or they care about themselves, like many long term and some short term politicians do.
Determining mindset can be a time consuming and complicated exercise. Mindset is clearly demonstrated by the actions of an individual. Observe an individual’s actions over time and keep in mind that talk is cheap. It’s not what they say, but what they do.
Wayne will go down with the ship, he is another Capt. Ahab like in Moby Dick. He seems to think that the NRA belongs to him.
New york isn’t just about getting Wayne, they want the NRA abolished. If they were impartial Wayne and his cohorts would be the target but of course they soulnt care less about how the dues were wasted.
I don’t see how the NRA comes through this intact. Maybe degrading as the American Rifle Association. ARA has a nice ring to it.
Wayne and Marion should be fitted for pin striped jumpsuits along with any board member who authorised the actions they took.
Fucking shame all around.
The NRA has followed the same path as the Government. In the beginning It had a Cause with the betterment of the citizens in mind. They worked to support the Rights of all citizens and make a place for all to safely prosper. As time went they began to be infiltrated by people who were more interested in the Power their positions gave them. With that Power came personal gain and influence in areas other than it’s original purpose. Once those people were able to reach positions of control and insert others with the same goals into positions that supported their control. The original Cause was no longer a part of the Equation. It was replaced by the Power, Influence and all the Monetary Gains that went along with their Positions. The Citizens simply became another income stream to further their Self Affirming Agenda. What were once Tools for the Betterment of All. Once allowed to self replicate for their Own Purposes. Destroy everything they were Intended to Protect. The “Swamp” is a large place and may well require the extinction of a number of species in order to clean it up.
There is much truth on your take on what Negotiating Rights Away has become.
This probably depends on the judge and other suits. The New York Attorney General is also suing for the return of assets along with abolishing the NRA. I’m sure the Attorney General would be happy to collect those assets as New York needs the money or maybe the Attorney General would like a kitty of her own, but this sets a bad precedent on the order of making State Attorney Generals modern day Pirates. As a retired scientist I am about as far from being a legal expert as I can be and maybe it is perfectly legal, but it certainly doesn’t sound good to me. There are significant other assets too and most are out of the Attorney General’s jurisdiction NRA Headquarters, Museum, and others. My contention is that all of these assets belong collectively to the members and the best way to do that is to remove the offending parties and allow the membership to rebuild.
One final thought is that this sort of situation isn’t unusual in the realm of Professional Organizations. I live fairly near a, fairly cushy, Federal Pen. At one time the Executive Director of one of the big Water organizations spent time there for misuse of organizational funds. The organization was not dissolved.
“The New York Attorney General is also suing for the return of assets along with abolishing the NRA.”
Return them to *who*, exactly? They belong to us…
Return the assets is similar terminology to gun buy back.
Clean up the NRA. Then I’ll rejoin…remember the Iraq War? I couldn’t believe W et al were dumb enough to topple Saddam. They were and are. Left Iran a world power(regional anyway). I doubt old Wayne will go quietly. He’ll keep wrecking his way to prison!
I see that the Cancel Culture is thriving on the Right as well as the Left.
The cancer must be removed, Ralph.
We should just smile and say everything is fine-and-dandy?
I’m old enough to remember when the NRA viewed itself as the premier gun safety education organization in the country (and they were). Good times.
Then they became a (quite mediocre) gun rights advocacy organization. OK, you do you. I liked you better as a dedicated gun safety training organization.
Then WLP came along. I NEVER thought that clown was a good spokesman, either for the NRA or the 2A. Then the whole board mess blew up, and I let my membership lapse (glad I never opted for life membership).
There are better gun rights/2A organizations out there. Gun safety education and training is now easier to find, and getting better all the time. WLP has p***ed away any credibility the NRA had. Reading these comments, most POTG don’t like him, and the liberals and gun-grabbers hate him.
Honestly, I think the gun community would be better off to just let the NRA die, and begin supporting GOA, SAF and others. Work with local ranges to upgrade their training. The board members who didn’t object to this owe the members a lot of money. WLP should be turning big rocks into small rocks.
The NRA is still the premier training organization. There are schools that have more advanced training than the NRA offers, but none that teach as many as the NRA.
I have become very disappointed with the NRA. They keep requesting donations to supposedly fight the.liberal horde who continually try to ban and take away our firearms. They try to entice us by giving us tokens (made in China) in return for donating. First, why don’t they use the money that they used to purchase those appreciation tokens to help fight the liberals. Also the hierarchy in the the NRA seems to bleed their funds for perks for themselves. La Pierre supposedly spent $200,00 of NRA money to buy clothes for himself and the NRA supposedly was paying a lawyer $5,000 a week as a retainer. Also lately, many other incidents supposedly come to light of graft and corruption. I have sent several emails to confirm these allegations and the NRA has not responded. I will not give another nickel to the NRA until allegations until the corruption is stopped and the NRA is paid back by back and the thieves have been prosecuted!!!
Whatever this new BOD looks like I sure hope it has some younger and more socially connected members (and that’s coming from someone who is closing in on 60 and no Fvckbook page).
A lot of these positions would be fairly short memberships
2-3 social gun media stars to drive membership…
(MrGunsgear/Robski/Colion/Hickock45/Mishaco/female(?))
A rep from young adult shooting sports (some kind of national champ)
1-2 National gaming champs in popular games using period correct weapons.
Once again to drive youth membership
1-2 celebrities that people somewhat care about (i.e. someone NOT like Ted N)
Kenneu Reeves?
Big +1 for mentioning Mishaco & Robski in there, far to few potg even know who they are, outside of people who get excited when they see Radom mentioned.
I was appalled when Oliver North was elected president of the NRA due to personal reasons. When he was forced out of the NRA I gained respect for him. He tried to blow the whistle on corruption and greed. Since then I have not given a dime to the NRA even though I am a life member.
I just hope that the NRA can still stand after this hateful attack by NY and VA. Wayne and the board has set the stage for these attacks and they are dirty. If North had succeeded we would still have the NRA for years to come, now it is not so sure.
You dingleberries still don’t get it. 90 years of supporting gun control, 30 years of unaccountability, waste and unquestioning loyalty to the GOP. Now it’s in the clutches of New York and you think you’re getting a present. Why not right? Boomers and Gen X are so used to failing upward it’s disgusting.
Really, no matter what happens nominal gun rights orgs will still be full of negligent, entitled members who can’t distinguish one part of the bloated center-authoritarian platform they’ve been led to identify with from any other. You’ll just sprout a new corrupt, sell-out board by putting up your vote and your money as fertilizer.
And what are you doing that’s better? Inquiring minds want to know.
Do I sound like I’ve ever given the NRA a dime? I probably do in this group, with all these clowns acting like they’re finally putting their foot down with the NRA after buying lifetime membership, and after it got so far out of hand that the state stepped in, lol. But no, to start with I recognized a dumpster fire when I smelled it and stayed away.
LaPierre knows at this point that the right thing to do for the future of the NRA is to resign. If he doesn’t, then he’s proving it’s all about ego and greed.
You can make it about Lapierre, and then get you ass handed to you.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-national-rifle-association/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=first
Thank you Capt. Obvious!
I hope Dell’Aquila is successful with his class action.
I am one Patron level member who has donated many hours and dollars to the NRA but quit giving because of the ongoing mismanagement of the NRA by Wayne and his enablers on the BOD.
I fear that Wayne will not let go of his hold on the NRA until he has drained it completely of resources and destroyed it’s usefulness in the battle that is ongoing and needed to save the 2nd amendment. If that does happen, Wayne and his BOD enablers will have done more to harm the 2nd amendment and this country than Bloomberg and all of his gun control groups ever have.
Patron member #4875884
NO MORE MONEY TILL WAYNE AND CREW ARE GONE, NOT ONE MORE DOLLAR!!!!
Waynes a good guy, just started to turn his life around, dint du nuttn, just got in with the wrong crowd.
Remember all the way back in the distant past, 2017? Neither was likely to pass but we had a probably once in a generation (if not once in a lifetime) opportunity to pass National CHL reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act. The NRA should have pulled out all the stops and done everything it possibly could have to ram those bills into law. Instead they did basically nothing. So lets see, they support gun control and refuse to advance gun rights. If they’re truly the best we have (as the Fudds like to claim) we may as well surrender now
I have been a member of the NRA for years. Never had the money to buy a lifetime membership, but I have supported this organization for a long time. I decided not to send them any more money, until they can tell me with certainty that my money isn’t going to pay for anymore new suits. I understand expense accounts, and certain expenses that go with the job, but I’m not paying for anymore new suits, or first class flights, or golf games, while I am worrying about how I am going to buy groceries. That’s horsesh-t.
I’m sorry but you have misspelled LaPierre.
The correct spelling is LePew.
When Roberti-Roos semi-auto ban was rammed through in California, I was angry, yet more tyranny has just inexorably and regularly increased. 3 firearms bought “legally” over the years have one by one been turned “illegal” by a stroke of a pen in Sacramento, making myself and thousands of other Californians De Facto criminals, subject to arrest and prison time for simple possession. That this evil situation prevails with NO pushback by NRA is a crime. We are left abandoned to our fate. Doesn’t take a lead weight to fall on me to grasp that NRA are no defenders of the people via the 2A. Now we have the Biden/Kamala/O’Rourke Axis openly vowing to ban all things semi-automatic. We have been stabbed in the back. Will we survive is the question?