The association stands at one of the gravest moments of peril in its nearly 150 year history — presenting a rare opportunity for the gun lobby’s opponents to kick it while it’s down.
By Tim Dickinson & Andy Kroll
Rolling Stone (5/3/19)
Chaos broke out at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis last week. The gun group’s figurehead president, Oliver North, backed by its longtime PR firm Ackerman McQueen, allegedly tried to oust the NRA’s powerful CEO, Wayne LaPierre. But LaPierre hit back — forcing North to step down, while winning unanimous reelection by the NRA board.
“a small group of NRA executives, contractors and vendors has extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from the nonprofit’s budget, through gratuitous payments, sweetheart deals, and opaque financial arrangements.”
As this Game of Thrones-worthy infighting played out, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she has opened an investigation into the NRA’s financial practices — amid public accusations that NRA executives and contractors have been feathering their nests with donor dollars — raising the possibility that the association’s non-profit status could be revoked.
Things have gotten so bad that even “chaos president” Donald Trump tweeted at the gun lobby to “get its act together quickly, stop the internal fighting, & get back to GREATNESS – FAST!”
Below, we tease out this hot mess at the NRA…