A bunch of fresh revelations. Many are wondering what Wayne is doing flying charter, which, as you can see, is horrendously expensive. However, I’d encourage everyone to look at the dates on this. It’s immediately after Sandy Hook.
I’m not really believing Wayne was off cavorting in the Bahamas on vacation just a few weeks after Sandy Hook. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were looking to get out of dodge and find some place to meet that would be hard for the press and opponents to get to. The media would have been able to track a commercial flight Wayne was spotted on, and if you’ve ever been to a business meeting of any size, you’ll have venue staff servicing the meeting, and staff can be paid to talk and spy. So I would not be so quick to say these couldn’t have possibly been legit business trips.
I also fully believe these revelations are Ack-Mac following through on threats if NRA didn’t keep flushing millions of dollars down them. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see Wayne retire and get some younger blood in the EVP’s office. But I’m also not going to help them burn NRA to the ground. I think if Wayne retired, it would help put this behind us. But I’m not going to get too bent out of shape over his having a lot of travel expenses, even for flying charter, immediately after Sandy Hook.
“But I’m also not going to help them burn NRA to the ground.”
This is a key point.
I’ve been dealing with lies, accounting questions, and unauthorized expenditures in an organization lately, though with a smaller footprint of impact. But still, not terribly different than this situation. And yet one key theme in my handling of it is not to burn the group to the ground. I could, but I believe in the larger mission enough not to do it.
There are better ways to handle things and guide them toward correction where focus can still be directed on a mission. The problem is that it seems with their behavior, Ack Mac doesn’t seem to care about the larger mission and views the only correction as more money spent with them with no accountability.
A very key point. Also, a disturbing percentage of the complaints against the NRA seem to be geared primarily towards strengthening GOA, etc. at the NRA’s expense. There is room for more than just the NRA, but internecine conflict right now will kill us all. I’m going to the USCCA convention in Pittsburgh this week, and I expect it to be a lot of NRA-bashing (accompanied by the requisite money begging) from USCCA, PDN, GOA and anyone else who feels they can squeeze a dollar from the strife. Not that they’re bad organizations, just that they now have that smell of money in their noses and it’s distracting them from bigger issues.
The NRA threw the USCCA out of the NRA Annual Meeting in 2017, two weeks before the meeting, because the USCCA was a competition to the newly launched NRA Carry Guard insurance. You know, the same Carry Guard insurance that turned out to be a financial disaster for the NRA and that got the USCCA insurance verboten in two states. There is simply no love for the current NRA leadership at the USCCA, and rightfully so!
The irony is that the NRA was at its peak in 2016, having convinced many long-time holdouts to sign up. Then they screwed it all up. Throwing the USCCA out, supporting the bump stock ban, supporting red flag laws, running the organization financially into the abyss, getting nothing done in the federal legislature, and screwing over state gun rights organizations.
Why shouldn’t the GOA use this opportunity to gain members and donations, given this screwup of epic proportions by the NRA? The NRA is pissing dues and donations away anyway.
Why shouldn’t the USCCA continue it’s business of selling self defense insurance and training classes, neither of which the NRA does at this point. The NRA Carry Guard is a fraud.
Why shouldn’t Rob Pincus sell professional training classes, which the NRA doesn’t do either?
I never said they shouldn’t. Believe me, I know – I’m a GOA Life Member, a PDN Platinum member and a USCCA Instructor. But they are all spending less time saying and doing those things and replacing them with an “NRA bad, give us your money” message. Does the NRA need fixing? Absolutely. It’s a complete train wreck right now. But, as Bitter’s original comment said, it’s no reason to help burn them to the ground. The other groups and people smell blood (and cash) in the water and if they let their message get too diluted in pursuit of it, they’ll find themselves in the same quagmire in which the NRA currently finds itself.
Where does the USCCA or PDN say that? Nowhere! The USCCA and PDN do not even solicit donations! I guess we are now at the mud throwing part.
People like to rag on charter planes and private jets. However, depending on how many people are being transported they can be surprisingly economical.
Also true.
Mike is right. I came close to chartering on a contract that had a team serving three locations across four time zones every ten days.
We narrowly avoided the worst of it, but a chartered jet was actually going to save us money. Rock stars and politicians give them a bad name.
That said, I totally think Wayne got way too comfy. Ack-Mac is his legacy. He climbed into bed with them, and now we have to suffer the nasty divorce.
I agree.
If he can keep winning he can keep spending my dues money on luxuries …
Indeed. The big question is “if”.
Having said that, *if* flying charter is done in a sincere effort to prevent losing, even if the effort fails, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
How often has Wayne been flying charter? If it’s clearly during times of crisis, like during Sandy Hook, then chances are, it’s in an effort to shore up our position. If it’s at random times, then it should *definitely* raise eyebrows!
Winning? As in banning bump stocks, supporting red flag laws, and backstabbing state gun rights organizations? You are suffering from battered NRA member syndrome. Paying someone money to maintain the status quo and to give in from time to tome is NOT winning! It is a protection racket, though.
This is my concern as well. If they were doing their jobs right there wouldn’t be a MDA or other Bloomberg affiliates to have to worry about post Sandy Hook. The anti gun political complex should have been crushed permanently in 2004-2006. Or at very least no later than 2008. The wins should have been all one way and working the way the other side tries to do to us in NY, NJ, and CA: stopping them from spreading and permanently directing their numbers to the negative. This is what is supposed to be Wayne and Ack Mac’s job.
What we should have been doing all along and at very least from this moment forward is to treat the NRA leadership like college football coaches. Win or you’re out–if you can’t beat the same opponents you see every year you suck, and we’ll get someone else who will win 8-10 games out of 12 a year. No more of this scoreless tie bull****.
Except no … without the NRA we’d have lost everything a long time ago. Instead we have Concealed Carry in a majority of states and, although I know they weren’t at the head of the case they were at the forefront of the culture that made it possible, 2 big wins in SCOTUS.
Perhaps y’all don’t realize this, but in a country where we vote for our leaders the feelings of the population matter, and there are a lot of powerful, influential people who are against guns.
As for bump stocks … they are a joke. There is no military or police force in the world that uses them. They aren’t a real replacement for full automatic weapons, and we all seem to accept that last ship has sailed. Certainly the majority of the public has.
The 2nd amendment isn’t about toys. It’s about protecting personal liberties and, according to SCOTUS, personal defense. Bump stocks contribute to neither of those.
The NRA did not win Heller, neither did they win McDonald. They surely take credit for it, though. That’s the NRA’s MO, taking credit for other people’s work and fund raise on it.
When it comes to state-level activity, most gun rights organizations hope and pray that the NRA does NOT get involved and screws things up. The state of Tennessee has now been screwed over by the NRA twice in 2 years (2017: guns in parks, 2019: concealed-only permit). Just ask the Tennessee Firearms Association what they think about the NRA.
Your lack of knowledge continues with your opinion on the bump stock ban. Apart from the fact that the NRA now officially gave up fighting the 1986 machine gun ban, the legal implications of the bump stock ban are far reaching. You may want to look up the meaning of the Chevron Deference and why the bump stock ban is just a precursor of banning all kinds of other things by executive fiat.
You also clearly do not understand the meaning of the 2nd Amendment. Personal defense is not mentioned in the 2nd Amendment anywhere.
Actually I disagree. The 2nd Amendment IS about personal defense and it was put in explicitly but not exclusively to the threat of violence and abuse from the government. Since it’s in a document outlining the purposes and constraints of our government, it is deliberately put in as a defense mechanisms against it. Thomas Jefferson put it this way: “The two greatest enemies of the people are criminals and the government. Let us bind the latter with the chains of the Constitution so it doesn’t become a legalized version of the former.” It wasn’t even a question that defense against criminal predation was also intended–that was never in doubt at the time. PA and VA’s constitutions, for example, include specific reference to that.
Personal defense is typically meant in the context of an individual defending his life and/or the life of others from an attack by one or more criminals. That’s not what the 2nd Amendment is about.
Since the Constitution sets up the government, it also limits the government. The 2nd Amendment is about defense against a criminal government (see Battle of Athens).
The right to personal defense exists independent from the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment, since you have unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The right to personal defense existed even before the Constitution was written and before the US government existed.
Why do I differentiate between both rights? Both rights have different meanings and require different tools to exercise them. The original argument was that bump stocks are not covered under the 2nd Amendment. I strongly disagree.
Focusing on WLP’s expenses, whatever the reason ends up being is missing the point. He is basically acting like everyone else in DC. Not my idea of a good thing but it hardly makes him stand out. I have seen similar many, many times.
As I said before, what does stand out is the extraordinary high level of legal expense. I have not seen the like of that. It is enough to have an actual impact on the financial stability of the NRA, especially if it continues at the same rate. I assume that this is in some way related to the assault on the NRA by New York. So either the legal situation is sufficiently dire that such expenditures are necessary or something else is going on. The NRA’s fundraising on the topic has been over the top but the NRA’s fundraising is always over the top.
I agree on the legal expenses. I’m very curious what comes out of that. But some lawyer friends are telling me that these fees do seem very high, but not completely out of the realm of possibility for complex federal litigation.
It is not Federal as far as I know. It is State of New York. I am sure that the Microsoft anti-trust case had this level of legal expense but unless I misunderstand what is going on, this is not of that magnitude.
Wayne LaPierre flies to the Bahamas on December 17, day 3 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Based on the recent open letters we know that this was the lights out time at NRA HQ. He releases a public statement on December 21, day 7 after the shooting and day 4 in the Bahamas. He then comes back from the Bahamas on January 5. That’s 19 days in the Bahamas. There are easier, cheaper and more ethical ways ways to hide. Fleeing the country is rather un-American. I wonder how those left behind at NRA HQ feel now about that time.
Ackerman McQueen has always been a parasite and welcomed by the NRA leadership. The only reason why this relationship has blown up now is that Ackerman McQueen did create a huge financial liability with Carry Guard and the NRA was short on cash as members voted with their feet.
As I said in my other post from yesterday, which is still awaiting moderation for some mysterious reason, the NRA Board of Directors and its officers have, so far, refused to publicly deal with this mess. Everything is kept confidential. This looks to me like a cover up by a corrupt organization. I wonder how much the full Board actually knows about this and when they will decide that they can’t do anything about this and it is time to resign.
At this point, why would and why should anyone pay their member dues or donate to the organization, knowing that the money will disappear in the pockets of a few?
Then there’s the small matter of Wayne’s little shopping spree. So our membership dues go toward stimulus for the anti-gun economy?
I’ve never supported burning a place down that didn’t have it coming. But the more we understand what our dues subsidize, the more I support a real change of leadership. If the NRA earns our trust by winning then I can see executive compensation catching up. The fact is they’ve been AWOL, ironically shortly after Wayne announced the “spread eagles” program for schools or whatever the hell Ack-Mac wanted to call it when he called the first less conference after the Newtown massacre. They need to employ guerrilla tactics including some.muscle. If they don’t we (and someone else) will, and that organization will gladly roll up the sleeves and get things done. NRA seems to be doing well building the gun culture, but their legislative impact has been so-so. Someone needs to put a pair of balls and a billyclub back into the organization, as witnessed by the rantings on this blog.
I think what needs to happen is since Wayne is under huge scrutiny, use that to our advantage to push out AckMc. But the deal to help him is that he retires in a few years. Win win win.
Sounds good to me. Though who really knows what is really going on.
The board isn’t going to do a thing. Many of them are lining their pockets as well. The NRA looks more and more like an organization that is riddled with parasites. Aside from an asteroid landing on the board meeting, I don’t know how you even start to fix something this screwed up.
“NRA President Carolyn Meadows told the newspaper in a statement that the “entire board is fully aware of these issues. We have full confidence in Wayne LaPierre.”
Some Board members are lining their pockets. The few that actually have control over the organization. The rest are just innocent bystanders watching the train wreck as it unfolds or simply AWOL (Board members not attending any meetings).
Don’t take Carolyn Meadows’ comment too serious. Those that have talked to Board members know that what she is saying isn’t even remotely true. She is just running the usual NRA propaganda for the clueless to make sure the money flow doesn’t stop.
I wonder how long the Board is going to continue with this charade, though. Timothy Knight and Allen West, among many others, know that this is an untenable situation.
WLP’s expenses appear to be inappropriate for a leader of a non-profit organization.
With regard to the travel: If you want to lay low, then just stay at corporate HQ in VA. Do they not have an executive suite for overnight stays? I think its more likely WLP had a previously scheduled winter festivus trip to the Caribbean. That travel pattern repeats itself with trips to Europe and other destinations.
Add on shenanigans like paying for rent for a swanky Fairfax apartment for an attractive 20-something intern out of WLP’s account, spending more on suits than on grassroots coordinators, and the other absurd expenses and there’s at least the appearance of impropriety. The leader of a major non-profit has an ethical obligation to avoid even the appearance of misconduct.
The hemorrhaging of cash ($24M — over $30K a day) to Brewer’s law firm is more concerning however. I’d also point out that if you look at Bill Brewer the vast majority of his political donations go to anti-gun democrats.
https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=william+brewer&cycle=&state=TX&zip=75201&employ=&cand=
https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Bill+brewer&cycle=&state=TX&zip=75201&employ=&cand=
Why did NRA give $24M to an attorney who (1) has been thrown out of court for ethics violations and (2) isn’t even on our side of the issue? That’s not small change.
Point A: If NRA had to blow through $24M in legal defense fees due to Carry Guard, then heads should roll at the executive level. A $24M mistake isn’t an “oopsie.” Its a firing offense for a BoD that takes their responsibility to safeguard limited resources seriously.
Point B: If you’re going to light $24M on fire with attorneys, at least hire a pro-2A legal team rather than funneling the money to a Hillary 2016 donor.
The only thing that will restore trust and confidence at this point is WLP’s graceful departure.
Honestly, it may all be moot. Worst of all, NRA has put themselves in a position where the NY AG and the IRS can really go after them hard for abuse of non-profit regulations. The NRA BoD may rapidly lose ability to control how this plays out once the NY AG gets involved. And the only thing stopping the IRS from being completely up inside NRA’s chili is the fact that we have a GOP administration. Wait until there is a Democratic weaponized-IRS again and NRA is hosed.
Frankly there should be a pro-2A legal team looking at a way to fence off some NRA assets and intellectual property in a separate legal entity so that something can rise from the ashes.
Why doesn’t our side go after the anti gun people at the IRS and other places now to diminish their capability so we won’t be fighting them at full strength next time? Is there a reason our side never thinks ahead and act preemptively?
GunWebsites will have NRA Board of Director Timothy Knight live at 5PM EDT on Tuesday, May 15, 2019: https://youtu.be/gcKYhJeMctI
Correction, May 15 is obviously a Wednesday.
I’d be far more interested who else was on all these charter flights. “Lobbying” is a pretty disgusting and corrupt business. If its him, that would be one scenario. If its him and the aides of key congress critters, thats a whole different scenario.
Also what the heck is with the intern now a “Gift Planning Associate.” what does a gift planning associate even do? Plan gifts for congress critter aides??
“Gift planning associate”- my guess is getting people to put donate to the NRA, put the NRA in their will, ect.
That’s not a guess, that’s a reasonable conclusion. You don’t have to be a big donor to come across titles like that if you’re supporting any kind of charity, membership organization, etc. that has to do any fundraising at all. There are plenty of reasons even donations given while you’re upright and breathing need to be structured for tax purposes or life needs, and planning of those gifts usually takes some kind of specialized knowledge or at least knowing how to pitch them to convince people to plan now.
Wayne not only needs to go, the position of EVP needs to go.
Who runs NRA then?
Nobody. But I think that is the point of the comment.
What pisses me off more than anything is that those who should have known better (Wayne and company) given their years in the political hotseat, have given our blood enemies the very ammunition they needed to neuter or even destroy the NRA as an effective institution. They have breached their fiduciary duties – the duty of care, the duty of loyalty, and the duty of obedience – and that is unforgivable.
NRA Director Allen West’s Statement Regarding the NRA that everyone should read:
https://theoldschoolpatriot.com/statement-regarding-nra/
NRA President Carolyn Meadows, First Vice President Charles Cotton and Second Vice President LTC Willes Lee response: https://twitter.com/StephenGutowski/status/1128365976662179840/photo/1
PS: This is the fight I predicted was going to happen this morning with my post in this blog above.
PPS: Note that these communications have legal implications. NRA President Carolyn Meadows alleges that NRA Director Allen West did not fulfill his duty as a Board member.
The NRA is respond the exact wrong way to this.
Instead of attacking West, they should have thanked him for his concerns. And left it at that.
Both statements have legal implications. NRA Director Allen West accused the NRA leadership of evading oversight by hiding documents and of lying to the public, NRA members and the Board. NRA President Carolyn Meadows responded by accusing Allen West of not performing oversight by not seeking those documents.