It’s a slow day, so I don’t have much else to write, other than pick on Joan Peterson. Amid a steady stream of hysteria about how we don’t care about gun violence (kind of an odd assertion, when I carry a Glock specifically to prevent violence, gun or otherwise, against me and those around me. What does she think I carry it for? To tickle the unicorns?)Â we have her cite something from Michael Moore:
It’s about scoring political points and protecting LaPierre’s status as the 4th highest paid leader of any “charity organization†in the country, to the tune of a cool $1.281 million per year. And fear of Obama, the first black President, has been very, very good for fundraising and scaring middle-aged white men into stocking their basements with caches of weapons. Which means it’s also been very, very good for LaPierre’s bottom line, and that of the arms dealers who sit on the NRA’s Board.
Moore is a well documented liar, first of all. Second of all, NRA is not a charity. NRA has a charity, called the NRA Foundation. The Foundation does not directly compensate Wayne. He is paid by NRA, which is a 501(c)(4) non-profit, and therefore not a charity. NRA Foundation is a four star charity. By comparison, The Brady Center is a two star charity. Helmke’s $243,888 salary is compensated directly from the Center, and represents 6.33% of its total expenses. Paul draws no salary from the 501(c)(4), the Brady Campaign, which by now is very nearly defunct. The Brady Campaign and Brady Center only employ approximately 52 people. There seems to be a concerted effort by Brady to shift more of their expenses to the more financially stable 501(c)(3), which is not going to help them boost their charity rating, and may even lower it.
How high is Wayne’s salary in comparison to other non-profit salaries? Even if I compare this report only on non-profit salaries in Minnesota, it’s pretty clear it’s not out of the park for large organizations. Also note this list of non-profit millionaires that you won’t see Wayne’s name on. Keep in mind that NRA employs 766 people on revenues of 250 million. Even if you compare NRA to an actual charity in similar revenue ranges, like Metropolitan Opera Association, or National Public Radio, Wayne salary is not stratospheric.
Our opponents have to believe they are fighting against some shady, questionably legitimate organization. They don’t want to accept that they are fighting against millions of ordinary Americans who happen to value this country’s Second Amendment heritage. It makes it easier for them, I think. It’s much easier to believe you’re trying to prevent fat cats from profiting off your tragedy. Much harder to believe you’re fighting to destroy the freedoms of other Americans because of it.
The NRA is a charity?? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard it referred to as that… She’s desperate and cherry-t-picking out her ass since she apparently can’t use Google.
There’s plenty of better paid directors at many non-profits: in ’08 the MOMA CEO made $3,421,870 and the Met Opera CEO made $2,710,6067 and the head of NYU made $1,385,339 – and none of them contribute as much to public safety. :-)
I do not agree with your assessment. Anti organizations are largely run and funded by professional politicians and activists. They’re not stupid people. They know exactly who their opposition is. They, including Joan, just have a lot of contempt for our side and will never publicly admit they’ve been getting their clocks cleaned by the great unwashed masses.
I’d be happier if the NRA didn’t act more like a direct mail firm that also does the 2nd amendment than a 2nd amendment supporting organization that raised money.
But it seems to work anyhow.
NRA only spent about 18 million on fundraising in 2009 on revenues of 250 million. Most of the money they are raising is going to fund programs.
Given the work Wayne has to do, I think he is underpaid. I am happy to be an NRA member and happy to know that the NRA is paying what it needs to, to retain the best and brightest. I’m glad it’s not cutting corners and hiring hacks like Helmke.
What does she think I carry it for?
Well, and this is admittedly kinda mean on my part, what do you think she thinks?
Considering what I’ve seen of her level of argumentation and thought processes, probably “to feel like a big man and compensate for the size of your penis” or “to murder someone if you ever get the chance to get away with it”.
(Back on the real point, I can’t help but notice that despite their automatic insinuation that it must be true, they never can point to a single instance of the NRA using race to make people afraid. Or at least, they never seem to be able to, that I’ve seen.
Now, people certainly were afraid that Barack Obama – the first President who happened to be black – would try to take their guns.
But that’s because of his party, his company, his backers, his supporters… not the color of his skin.)
Unicorns break out in hives from the presence of a firearm. They have an immediate anaphylactic incident if they are within the same county as a Glock. Dismissing these tragic facts by saying “Unicorns are ticklish” is a Crime Against HUMANITY!!!!!!!!
Your link to the Brady’s rating is not correct. You linked to the Moore analysis twice.
Or, oops, the NRA’s rating. My bad.
I fixed that. Thanks.
Wayne’s gotten a decent raise. When I started blogging he was at about $450k a year which was seriously underpaid for DC. His $1.2 million salary is also seriously underpaid for DC. Tom Donohue at the Chamber of Commerce – perhaps the only other non profit exec who has a computable success record – makes about $10 mil a year plus gets a plane and a couple of homes. Other large trade association executives make similar salaries (Im not at that level yet, hope one day to be). For my money, no one runs a better operation than LaPierre. He should be making $5 or more, easily.
As for Helmke, that’s actually a shockingly high salary for him I had heard he was making more like $120 a year. Which would be more in tune with what his type of position would be worth. He may have boosted it in an effort to get better comporables when he has to switche to a new job soon.
I used to think the anti-gun and anti-NRA falsehoods that flow like water from the other side were primarily for public consumption. But the anti-gun crusaders probably really believe their own crazy crap. It’s scary to think how much influence those creeps had at one time, and how Big Media still acts as their allies and enablers.
The real target of these anti-gun fanatics has always been the ‘gun culture’, meaning you and me (and not so-called “gun violence”). So of course they feel it necessary to demean us, belittle us, and dehumanize us. The whole point of their crusade is to direct ‘gun violence’ at us, by means of draconian laws enforced by gun-wielding police.
Brad’s right, they really do believe it; I can tell you this with confidence as I used to be one of them. And we did it because they we didn’t know any better and had no desire to find out. It was simply taken as gospel truth that the NRA was almost pure evil.
The power of association is very strong, and when we heard “NRA” our minds flashed to fat, piggish, balding white men with suits full of blood money handing out guns to wholesome kids in schoolyards and hollering about the second amendment when shocked and horrified parents objected. Yes, really. It is impossible for gun-controllers to believe that the NRA could possibly be a grassroots, member-funded civil-rights organization because it would contradict their mental image of it as an evil, top-down republican scheme for selling murder machines to frightened racists, boosting the profits of unethical gun pushers who pay them off.
I mean, just look at the “triangle of death” website. This is what we actually believed. It’s lunacy, but the isolation within upper-class elite urban liberal academic settings ensured that we never needed to examine the veracity of our beliefs.