nra wayne lapierre ackerman mcqueen
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The National Rifle Association has a lot going on right now. Firmly under the control of EVP and CEO Wayne LaPierre, the organization is dealing with ongoing legal action against the State of New York over its now defunct Carry Guard insurance program. They’re either the plaintiff or respondent in multiple lawsuits involving their former advertising and PR firm, Ackerman McQueen.

As if those weren’t enough, the Association is also dealing with investigations into its operations by the State of New York and the District of Columbia.

Now the NRA has withdrawn its lawsuit agains the city of San Francisco over its labeling of it as a terrorist organization after the city appeared to back down.

Janie Har, Associated Press

The National Rifle Association has withdrawn its lawsuit against San Francisco over the city’s resolution labeling the gun-rights group a “terrorist organization.”

The notice filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California was heralded by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who has called it a “frivolous lawsuit” based on a deliberate misinterpretation by the NRA.

“This was a baseless attempt to silence San Francisco’s valid criticisms of the NRA and distract from the gun violence epidemic facing our country,” Herrera said in a statement. “San Francisco will never be intimidated by the NRA.”

The group’s attorney, William A. Brewer III, was just as spirited in a statement Thursday, saying the lawsuit had achieved what it set out to do.

“The NRA will always fight for the Constitution and will refile if the city tries anything like this in the future,” he said.

The resolution approved by the Board of Supervisors in September contends that the gun-rights lobby uses its power to incite gun owners “to acts of violence.” It also says San Francisco “should take every reasonable step” to assess ties between its contractors and the NRA.

But the resolution is non-binding and does not change city law, Mayor London Breed said in a memo later that month to city department heads.

The NRA, which had said officials were seeking to blacklist vendors associated with the group, used her memo to claim victory.

San Francisco officials scoffed at the assertion and said the resolution was never meant to change city law.

At the time, Brewer called Breed’s memo a positive development but said the NRA will not withdraw its lawsuit until the resolution is formally revoked.

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54 COMMENTS

      • How can the NRA keep claiming 5M members. 5M in a good year. 5M in a bad year. 5M today with everyone jumping ship to the GOA etc. I bet the NRA is under 1M members by now.

        At what point will the NRA collapse under its own weight? Fancy buildings, frequent jet travel, and lavish dinners require a hefty cash inflow. It takes 10 NRA members per day just to feed WLP. 100 per overnight trip. And 1000 members per day to slap down infighting lawsuits.

        Remember when the NRA was a gun rights organization? I’m not sure I do either.

        • GOA tax filings show what, about 100,000 to 50,000 members? They are obviously lying about their numbers. And the NRA is fucked up bu GOA has less transparency, more nepotism, and less support for its positions.
          As soon as anyone of note even ears of the GOA, and no one does at present, they will be attacked to even better effect than the Bloomberg groups and media attacked the NRA. That is not to say most of NRA problems were not of their own making, but rather that GOA has the same problems and is even weaker.

        • I’m sure the NRA has it’s issues like any other org but it sounds like your comment is hyperbolic.
          The membership does fluctuate, I’m guessing by a million or so from year to year based on people letting membership lapse from time to time for whatever reason.
          In my opinion there’s no way we are down to one million, not even close.
          The fact is the NRA is our best shot at defending the 2nd at this time. If it weren’t for the NRA many of the smaller state gun rights orgs wouldn’t even exist.
          You go ahead and spread your hysteria, I’m going to get on the tele and send some more money to the NRA, in fact I like to send donations after reading comments like yours as a way to cancel out money lost by members jumping ship.
          NRA members keep on keepin on, they’ll get things straightened out.

        • And what makes you think NRA does not have 5+ million members? The “in-the-know” Never NRA posters here and at Ammoland? As for dropping the lawsuit- when SFCC retracted their meaningless “vote” and statement, where were are the damages? Want to spend millions for a non-apology?

          GOA, NAGR and all the rest of the so-called pro-gun, no-compromise people can’t scrape together 3/4 million people if they could find everyone they claim. They couldn’t arrange a real policy meeting with a US Senator, except, perhaps, to get together with DiFi, Schumer, et al in an attempt to sabotage NRA for them, which they probably already are doing, all’s fair in love and politics… And the notion that they could even have a meeting with the West Wing Men’s Room Valet for the same is also a pipe dream. Meet with the President??? LO-f’ingL!!!) So- who do they go to for organizing their great master plan? Oh, sure, their membership. What’d they get a week ago, almost a thousand people on the Capital grounds for a rally. That beat the hell out of Pincus’s “take over the NRA Board meeting” deal where ONE person showed.

          Go ahead guys- spend your money on the little guys, they need to pay rent and make their car payments. They have nearly zero effect on policy or the government, state, federal or local. They do seem to find favor with some around here, though.

    • And that’s why I dropped my NRA membership and give to the GOA now. Wayne is so petulant at this point, he knows he has lost most if not all the faith of members but refuses to resign. I’ll always fight for the constitution, just not under his name.

      • Hey, Scott- list some of GOA’s victories in the US or any state’s legislatures… About all they can claim is suckering you into giving them money for a lot of hollow talk.

        Seriously…

    • All they want is your F**king money then tell you to shut up they don’t want to hear what you have to say. Too me they are no different then the liberal democraps in D.C. now & I will no longer support them in any way, shape or form!

    • Think about it…They want the NRA to spend $$$$$Million’s Just to make them cry we were wrong? It will not change anything !! . San Francisco is using what they think is unlimited PUBLIC MONEY. The NRA money can be used somewhere else like buying a Senator/Congressman. Yeh it sucks alright, but the Sheeple of San Francisco are the ones that need to pull the money plug. Good Tax paying Conservatives are leaving that State in droves, and today Mexifornia doesn’t have the money to even fight their fires. They are begging the Federal Government which means FUNDS from other States paying for Mexifornia.

    • Think about it…They want the NRA to spend $$$$$Million’s Just to make them cry “we were wrong”? It will not change anything !! . San Francisco is using what they think is unlimited PUBLIC MONEY. The NRA money can be used somewhere else like buying a Senator/Congressman. Yea it sucks alright, but the Sheeple of San Francisco are the ones that need to pull the money plug. Good Tax paying Conservatives are leaving that State in droves, and today Mexifornia doesn’t have the money to even fight their fires. They are begging the Federal Government which means FUNDS from other States paying for Mexifornia like yours & mine…

  4. FUCKING SCUMBAG COWARDS!! JUST LIKE THE COUNTRY CLUB ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!

    San Francisco engaged in Slander, Libel, Defamation, and Disparagement…….and the NRA is letting ’em off the hook. Good way to help in losing the CULTURE WAR.

    • The NRA is useless at this point. Once the Slander, Libel, Defamation, and/or Disparagement is done, there is NO WAY for the defendant to “back down” or retract the offense. The damage was done when SF made the “Terrorist Organization” comment, thereby classifying ALL NRA MEMBERS TERRORISTS. If the NRA can’t follow thru on clearing EVERY members name after this attack, they are TOTALLY useless. Grow a pair and support your members NRA.

      • That is a bizarre (il)logical construction.

        This is the USA. The first amendment and case law make it almost impossible for a public figure or public organization to win a defamation suit.
        “Terrorist” has several meanings most of which is general and not legally defined, meaning one can call Mother Teresa, the Catholic Church, your Dem or Republican Senator, the local Kiwanis club, anyone who ones a gun, whatever, a “terrorist” or terrorist group and not be successfully sued.

      • Didn’t Obama classify veterans as Domestic Terrorists. So, you’re pissed off at the NRA because of Wayne LaPierre. You little girls out there are now hating the gun rights organization that’s lobbied for gun owners for over 50 years because San Francisco called you a name. YOU losers should turn in your guns because you obviously can’t take the heat that Patriots have been subjected to since Vietnam. I keep my guns and and will because it’s my God given right, not anything to do with how effective or not the NRA is or was! Grow a set!!!!!!!

  5. The NRA’s strengths remain in its training and youth outreach efforts. Its “Friends of the NRA” events raise funds for these important efforts. You can donate there and still know that your money is being spent effectively.

    The NRA’s legal and political intiatives, however, are tarnished as much by own goals as by anything the antis have done. It will take years to right the ship and restore their claim to being the nation’s premier Second Amendment civil rights organization.

  7. If I understood the earlier press releases, the city said it was a non-binding resolution and would not enforce the “connection” issues with any current contractor. I saw nothing that it would not push to do that with any new or renewing contracts with the city. I saw nothing in it that condemned the label of Domestic Terrorist for any member of the NRA.

    I am a NRA member until 2024. I currently give to both the ILA and PVF. Unless I see something that makes me feel strongly differently about things, my money will go to a different Gun Rights group I have already joined and my membership in the NRA will lapse in 2024.

    Just out of curiosity; there is an NRA sticker in the rear window of my Dodge, if I were to get pulled over in San Francisco, am I considered a domestic terrorist or not, I show a clear association with a group they still have classified that way? Just how ‘non-binding’ is a resolution? Enough to get a ticket for a tail light being out or enough to have your care searched for having a tail light out? Considering that California is pulling over cars because they were seen at a gun show in Nevada, how will they treat NRA members from out of state?

    Just as with the new Supreme Court rulings stating the AR-15 and 30 round magazines are covered by the Second Amendment, does any one believe that California will change those laws or keep them and make responsible gun owners fight for a right that the Supreme Court says they already have?

  8. If you’re not going to follow through with a lawsuit, don’t file it in the first place.

    But I have a strong suspicion that Brewer will get paid for all his “work” on this. Your NRA dues at work . . . .

    LaPierre delenda est.

    • San Francisco will do this again, probably in the very near future too.

      This was a test of “Who has more backbone”……….The NRA…LOST!! The NRA’s decision to drop this lawsuit shows that they won’t defend themselves when push comes to shove, and the shove turns to punches and kicks.

    • Nonsense. Many groups do file a suit even knowing that in the US winning such a libel case is impossible. This was a logical venue for the NRA to counter the claims, and they dropped it at a sensible point since you cant win these, any more than if one called TTAG terrorist. Terrorist has a legal criminal code definition,but it has many many other definitions, so you cant really win a slander or defamation case if someone calls you that. But you can make your point as to the irrationality and nastiness of such a claim.

  9. I move that we declare the City of San Francisco to be a terrorist organization, and all elected officials and employees thereof to be terrorists.

  10. NRA saw the city was going to reference the NRA president’s claim that gun control activists were terrorists and use it as a defense.

  11. Weakness. This is the final nail in the coffin for the NRA. If they don’t even have the fortitude or the money to fight a city council over an attack on their own existence, it’s clear they’re beyond inept. Any political pull or influence they once had is long gone. They’re as much as a gun rights organization as the Holy Roman Empire was Roman, or Holy.

  12. The NRA: Because fat pasty cowards who cannot get laid without paying for it need lobbyists, too!!

    • You are a sad loser…. just sad….
      If you don’t like “party bastards” then get your a$$ back to mexifornia….

  13. What a Joke! Any of the last remaining local gun rights/Pro2@ groups in the People’s Republic of M- Assachusetts call the NRA sell outs here in this state (re: from behind the Iron Curtain.) ….Since THEY, and Knife Rights bailed out on us !!! Very little outside help…Only “Waffler, and compromiser groups left to barter for privileges and scraps of OUR remaining constitutional rights! Where as in, all government agents, and agencies HERE should be charged with treason, sent to prison with hard labor! For suppression of constitutional rights and violation of rights under color of LAW!

  14. The NRA couldn’t even be bothered to see a fight this easy, and outrageous, to it’s conclusion?

    Maybe WLP *is* inciting members to violence, only his is the ass that’s gonna end up being kicked?

    • “Who needs SF when you have this blog devoted to and obsessed with destroying the NRA.”
      Hey Guns4goys, don’t hate the messengers, hate the message.
      Almost EVERY pro-2nd A citizen was offended when SFran classified NRA members as terrorists. With this “looney left logic” the “progressive left” is one step closer to RED FLAGGING every current and past NRA member. Just use the crooked “leftist” judges to order the NRA to release ALL member INFO, then declare every person has lost their 2nd A rights.
      The fact the NRA backed down shows the decision makers don’t give a shit about it’s members.
      Free China made trinkets (garbage) to renew NRA memberships WILL NOT fix the problem, protecting NRA members is the ONLY way to save the sinking ship.

      • The NRA backed down a the same point that sensible groups and public persons do back down. You file your case, state your grounds, attack those who slandered you, and then, because in the US, due to case law on the first amendment, it is impossible for the NRA or a group to win a case like this: at the right time drop the case.

        I think the people bitching about how the NRA handled this would be bitching if the NRA did nothing, and bitching if the NRA had fought this losing case longer. They are just bitching.

    • u sue u win

      other than saying you know nothing about first amendment case law, what is your point. I can call Everytown, the NRA, the GOA. moms demand action, the City of Sanf Francisco government ‘terrorist” and they are not going to win a libel suet against me in the US. Terrorist has dozens of commonly used definitions. I can say anyone with a gun, a knife — an opinion — whatever, is effectively a terrorist and they can’t sue me and win in the US

      • Are you retarded? Just asking because your comments appear to show your stupidity in spades…

  18. It’s obvious the majority of the comments to this story are demoturd shills and GOA leadership….
    I’M NOT A MEMBER OF EITHER ORGANIZATION…
    But listening to the whining of these people constantly attacking the NRA is getting old…STFU…I DON’T SEE YOU DOING ANYTHING EXCEPT TRYING TO DESTROY THE SECOND AMENDMENT….
    IDGAF WHAT THEIR “INFIGHTING” LOOKS LIKE FROM YOUR IGNORANT PERSPECTIVE… JUST STFU UNTIL YOU CAN OFFER 1/100 THE SUPPORT FOR GUN OWNERS THAT THE NRA DOES…

  19. Everybody needs to calm down. I’m not a lawyer, not even close but these suits back and forth are complicated and strategic.
    Most of the comments I’m reading are hysterical. There is no other org defending the 2nd Amm more effective than the NRA at this time. You can try and argue that but you’d be wrong.
    The left is rubbing their blood stained hands together salivating over the discourse they see. Some comments are probably coming from anti 2nd trolls.
    I look at it like the company I work for. As workers alot of us don’t agree with or like how the company is run by certain higher ups. We still have a job to do and get our objective done just maybe not as efficiently as we’d like. We aren’t going to burn the company to the ground. CEO’s etc will come and go. La’Pierre won’t be around forever. Make calls, vote whatever you need to do to voice your opposition to him if you view him as the problem but pulling your donations and jumping ship is EXACTLY what the anti’s want.
    But what do I know?

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