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From the National Shooting Sports Foundation:

NSSF, the trade association for the firearm industry, is troubled by the politically-driven decision of New York Attorney General Letitia James to seek to dissolve the National Rifle Association, America’s oldest civil rights organization. The lawsuit filed today by Attorney General James seeks to punish the over five million members of the National Rifle Association based on mere allegations of possible wrongdoing by a few individuals.

NSSF is deeply concerned about the apparent political agenda to silence the strongest voice in support of the Second Amendment ahead of the election in November.

This lawsuit, and one filed today by the District of Columbia Attorney General, should concern all Americans who cherish both the First and Second Amendments to our Constitution regardless of their views on what laws and regulations are appropriate to address the criminal misuse of firearms.

 

NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers nationwide. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.

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82 COMMENTS

    • Tucker Carlson had an excellent analysis of this.
      He said the NRA was instrumental in getting Trump into the White House in 2016.
      Filing the suit now, so close to the election, forces the NRA to divert millions of dollars that would potentially have gone into campaign ads into their legal defense.
      Thus putting Trump At a further at a further disadvantage.

  2. Step 1 – Insure the NRA gun library is locked up somewhere the NY state AG can’t get to…

    • The NSSF is a manufacturer’s representation group, not a rights group…

      • However they had no problem with urging the usurpation of Americans Due Process rights, aka Red Flag Laws. They are nothing more that the manufactures wing of Negotiating Rights Away and parrot their positions.

      • That does not excuse them from bragging on a gun blog about expanding the background check system and getting fix nics signed.

      • If anything it makes them an anti rights group. Advocating gun control makes them an anti gun group. Don’t care what they claim to be.

    • NSSF mostly speaks in behalf of the manufacturers, not gun owners. It speaks on behalf of owne3rs/buyers only to the extent that it will effect manufacturing and sales. Its priorities are thus quite different than the NRA, although they do overlap in places.

  4. Can we get GOA or SAF to purchase the assets and member lists in the liquidation sale? Frankly, the best possible outcome here is to see the NRA board dissolved, WLP jailed for embezzlement, and some group of people who actually care about civil rights over lining their own pockets to take over the NRA.

    • Something like that would help, if it’s a legal solution. still the fact remains that the NRA, like it or not, is perceived as THE gun rights organization. I would like it if WLP and the gang could be separated from the NRA and from our money. Make them pay personally for their misdeeds financially.

      • Good point. This Attorney General wants the money back, then just what does she intend to do with it. I don’t want to help bail New York out of bankruptcy.

      • Agree! If the AG was going after the individuals, as much as I hate to admit I’d agree with her, I’d be ok with it. Going after the whole organization seems legally questionable.

        Then again, look at the bright side. ACLU, NAACP, etc, better make sure their leadership hasn’t been taking vacations and spending money on other questionable expenses on the non-profit dollar since there is the little “legal precedent” thingy to worry about.

        I’ve been a life member since the Clinton administration although my extra contributions have fallen to 0 since I heard about the $60k intern apartment and Wayne’s suits and vacations. I guess gun rights in the Bahamas are now on solid ground.

    • That’s exactly what should happen. The NRA was formed to promote gun safety and gun sports. It also until fairly recently was bipartisan. It wasn’t until fairly recently that they became political and chose sides. When you choose sides the money from that side includes foreign actors corrupts.
      Start again all over and stay true to it’s founding principles.

    • Why didn’t the NRA move to a more gun friendly state before they built that expensive building. I’m sure they want to get the firearms museum in a settlement just to destroy everything in it.

      • “Why didn’t the NRA move to a more gun friendly state before they built that expensive building.”

        NRA didn’t build the “expensive building”, they got it already standing empty at a fire sale price. They then made good money leasing space atop each tower to cell phone companies and other microwave providers. The building is/was a decent investment regardless of what Neal Knox used to say.

  5. If those 5 million so called members would simple “Arm Up”. As Our Founding Patriots did this whole problem could be eliminated. Would it be costly? Yes. Would it be Bloody? Yes would it be Deadly? Yes. As it was 245 years ago. In the end it was worth the cost. In order to form the greatest Nation on the face of the earth. Liberty and Freedom are Never Free. In the beginning or 245 years later. The one thing that always remains a constant. It requires Courage to attain Liberty and Freedom and it requires Courage to Preserve them.
    The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
    Thomas Jefferson
    What held True then…Holds True Today…Keep Your Powder Dry.

    • If I arm up, it’s to go after WLP. The charges say they’re stolen $60M+ of our money that could have been used for all kinds of lawsuits and campaigns.

    • “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
      Thomas Jefferson
      What held True then…Holds True Today…Keep Your Powder Dry.”

      Hey- Darkman: why wait for the 5 million NRA members to do your bidding? Grab your trusty old Moisin or SKS and charge the US Capital, The White House or even the NY AG’s office. Get off the internet, gather your pals (Green Mtn Boy’s ready) and LEAD ON!!! For God’s sake, don’t wait around- just do it! Set the course for the other wise ones to follow. Some day they’ll probably errect (!) a monument for you- the modern day Paul Revere who saved the Second Amendment… Otherwise you’re not much different from all of the other tyrranical figures who convinced millions of others to go out and die for their own personal causes. Yeah, man, let’s see some action- NOW!

  6. Thinking the NRA is out of the way scumbag anti gun zealots obviously feel giddy and emboldened. That’s to be expected from anti gun democRat scumbags with an agenda that is clearly rooted in racism and genocide. Those racist and nazi anti gun zealots go nutty when people do not fit their mold and the first thing they do is disarm the misfits then it’s off to picking cotton or the gas chambers.

    • The zealots believe knocking out the NRA will solve their problem of resistance to gun control. Let them do it. Then gun owners can put their resources into the two organizations that are actually, 100%, pro-gun, Gun Owners of America and the Second Amendment Foundation. (I belong to both, and am a life member of the latter.)
      AG James’ action, if successful (very doubtful) has the potential to have an effect exactly the opposite of that she intends.

      • True, and I agree with your overall sentiment. However, we know that the majority of Democrats are low-information voters who react based on emotion, and the New York vanguard (Cuomo, AG James, and others) will use this as a banner victory to pander to their “useful idiots”. The rest of us know that the real work is being done behind the curtain by the other organizations you mentioned, but the optics of an NRA defeat will be ballyhooed and spun by the MSM all the way until Election Day.

        However, the average gun owner doesn’t know about LaPierre or his malfeasances. They, like the Dems, pretty much know the NRA as simply being the face of the entire gun community.

        I believe this action by New York will backfire heavily, as gun owners will galvanize under a new patriotism (formed by the fake COVID shutdowns, economy destruction, inequitable closure of churches while abortion clinics and pot shops get free passes, riots, BLM, massive dereliction of duty by Dem leaders, and now guns).

        • The Left would love to have the NRA scalp before election day 2020. Not likely to happen. It also seems unlikely that any reasonable judge would roll over and just grant her everything she is asking for. Even if that happened NRA would appeal so this will drag out until at least early/mid 2021. A more likely scenario would be for the judge to kick Wayne and company from NRA and appoint someone to reorg the org, of course this is NY and crooked judges are as common as crooked politicians.

        • NY has issues right now. With what is slowly leaking out about covid response, misc commie activists assaulting parishioners going to church, and a budget deficit that will be a long time in fixing any win that is loud and public would be attractive. With that said would be a shame if a shattered NRA created multiple stronger groups that actively fought for second amendment rights and represented a bunch of suprised and pissed off voters.

      • “Then gun owners can put their resources into the two organizations that are actually, 100%, pro-gun, Gun Owners of America and the Second Amendment Foundation. ”

        That would be a total waste of money and time. GOA has zero real gun rights victories to show for their existence. Please post them if you have a list. Not just what they say they’ll do- what they’ve actually accomplished ON THEIR OWN as an organization, with their own personnel and funding.

        SAF, on the other hand, is really what its title implies- a Foundation, not some organization of lobbyists and other workers. A source soliciting funds to apply to a foundational or principle cause. It would be impossible for Gotlieb’s institution to take on all of, or even only the national political duties of NRA with their present funding and staff. They are fine for single issues on an occasional basis but nationally, or in all 50 state legislatures, let alone the local and county issues? No way. GOA either. No reach, no network, and really, no experience.

      • Agreed. Riots everywhere and defunding scares and only mocking Police concerns…

        • 45gap and 357sig is about all that is left on the shelves of my nearest store. Next closest has some 40…….I ain’t even mad.

      • In my case, the conversion wasn’t complete until about the 3rd gun or so.

        Can’t say I was welcomed…but I wasn’t ostracized, either. I definitely *was* educated, as I read a lot and listened to the smartest pro-gun people I could find. Nobody welcomed or invited me — I invited myself when I felt like it.

        Sure, there’ll be plenty of people who remain oblivious, and a number of idiots who do the “I’m giving up my rights because I’m a responsible gun owner” virtue dance. But we’ll get a fair percentage of the rest. Give the thinkers some time to sort through the cognitive dissonance, and most of them will end up with us.

        • Yep, I voted his recommended ticket at least twice before it was clear Snidely Whiplash had perminant control of NRA.

  8. Find myself hoping the NY AG is successful in kicking WLP’s sorry ass to the curb!

    It’s like any big non-profit, eventually the association self-corrupts into two entities. The membership at large and the elites at the top. The membership at large remain what the association is supposed tto be about. The elites at the top turn it into a self aggrandizement machine. Stroking egos, filling bank accunts.

    Of course the NY AG attempt is political, but that is not the point, the corruption is so severe, so blatant and out in the open the lawsuit stands on very solid legal ground.

    We need a rebuilt NRA with WLP and his sycophants barred from the organization for life. We need that new NRA based in a Free State. With a BoD and rule structure created to avoid the corruption that has brought the NRA to this point of self generated crisis.

    • Hope and Change. Right out of Obama’s playbook. How’d that work out for 2A Rights under his tutelage? Hope is a word used when people haven’t got the Gumption or the Courage to do it Themselves.

      • So the word “hoping” is a trigger word for you? Sorry to cause you undue stress.

        The NRA has been broken for a long time. If this action by a hostile prosecutor results in a rebirth, renewarl, reformed, return to it’s origins NRA then I’m all for it.

        If “hoping” is too triggery for you, insert your own word.

        • Sorry… you’re communist takeover ain’t gonna work…. matter of fact, it will backfire on your communist organization…BIGTIME!

  9. It truly is a political move. The sad part though, is that Wayne and friends made it so easy for them. When you’re incorporated in NY of all places, it was pure hubris to think this wasn’t going to eventually catch up with them and ruin it for all of us.

  11. I agree WLP needs to go and I agree with Trump move to Texas. Also the NRA needs to stop wasting time and money in states like NY and CA and consolidate in free states that respects and supports the constitution. From there we can work in the swing states.

    • They probably can’t though. I read a legal analysis somewhere back when the NY AG started this investigation that said that non-profits in NY can’t leave the state and incorporate elsewhere without the permission of the state. It’s screwy but it also explains a lot.

      • Do it anyway, no one else in obeying the law. Move to Texas and let ’em come down here with their B S. Plenty of trees and rope here.

      • I wonder if a new organization, incorporated in a Free State, could purchase all assets and property of the NRA?

        Also have to wonder if it is lawful under Federal law to prevent a business from engaging in any aspect of interstate commerce that is otherwise lawful under Federal law? After all it is very common to hear of a business relocating a headquarters, consolidating operations from multiple locations into one. Corporations routinely operate across state lines, as they should.

        If New York State can bar a non-profit from departing the state, that smells fishy to me. An unconstitutional resriction on interstate commerce.

        • Dissolve the parent Corp…form a new Corp in another state,,, the new Corp buys the assets of “old Corp”…if NY says no, that has both Restraint of Trade and Violation of Interstate Trade written all over it. Any good Corporate attorney would salivate to take that case to its final fruition. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on one’s opinion (and mine) WLP has got to go. He, IMHO, has abused the (ours) contributions to an absurd level. I miss Charleton Heston….

  12. THE NRA HAS ONLY ITS SELF TO BLAME FOR THIS AND WLP TREATING THE ORGANIZATIONS TREASURY AS HIS PRIVATE CHECK BOOK AND THE OTHER HIGHER UPS STONEWALLING INQUIRIES THE WHOLE TOP POSITIONS NEED TO BE REPLACED WITH REGULAR PEOPLE WHO CAN BUY THEIR OWN CLOTHES WITH THEIR OWN MONEY!

    • I’ve been an NRA member my entire adult life (>40 years) but I never took a lifetime membership. Early on, because I didn’t have the money. Later on, because I never trusted WLP. I looked and listened to him and my bullshit detector always registered something. I know bullshit when I hear it and I know a bullshitter when I see one.

      When my membership comes up next year, I will not be renewing if WLP is still there. If I was a lifetime member, I wouldn’t be able to do that.

      I still have a lifetime membership at Blockbuster Video. If they ever come back, I’m all set.

  13. I saw this story and 30 minutes later I joined up with Gun Owners of America. Get the word out for others to do the same. I quit sending any money to the NRA as long as LaPierre was still in charge.

    NRA Life Member

  14. – possible wrongdoing by a few individuals.

    At least NSSF is on the right side of this argument. This time. Mark it down and make note, this is one of those hen’s teeth moments.

  15. identify the criminals, (already done), hire a good money hungry lawyer, sue the above mentioned crooks all the way to their b.v.d. ‘s, take the money 50 to 60 % depending on the lawyer, closed down the company, NRA, thru bankruptcy or what ever, start a new company, NRA 2, (for Second Amendment?), in another state as previously mentioned, send you letters to the criminals at their new address–

  16. Some months ago, after reading about LaPierre and his merry band of thieves inside the NRA, I stopped contributing anything other than the basic membership (I didn’t want NRA to die). I wrote on a number of their solicitation envelopes “Wayne doesn’t need any more suits” and sent them back empty.

    Instead, I joined GOA and the Second Amendment Foundation.

    I’m so glad now I did.

    What really has me fuming is that WLP’s greed has effectively taken the NRA out of this election battle — one in which the fate of our country (Constitutional Republic or tyrannical Socialism) hangs in the balance. I don’t want the NRA dissolved, but reformed. I do want to see WLP and his co-conspirators in jail.

    • I have been doing the same thing, wonder how many others are sending back the requests with the note.

      • I wasn’t doing anything with all those NRA mailings other than tossing them in a big box. For two or three years. Became a huge pile alright.

        So over several months last year I began opening and working thru those envelopes. Wrote something on each one with a red Sharpie, such as “NOT A PENNY MORE UNTIL WAYNE IS GONE!!!”.

        A lot of those were postage paid, very few needed stamps. I’d send back even the envelope it came in, and all the advertising. I’d cut the pieces up to fit in the return envelope. I kept getting mail from them as my membership neared expiration, and returning it in the same fashion.

        Since my NRA membership expired in February I have not received anything. Not even email.

        Possibly I offended them?

        Hope so. 😉

  17. I wondering why the NRA have had to stay in New York so long. They should have moved to a 2nd Amendment friendly state a long time ago.

  18. My NRA membership expired the 1st of June 2020. No plans to support or rejoin them. Old Wayne and cronies to blame…join your local state groups FIRST.

  19. Many of you have convicted Lapierre and the NRA based on second and third hand information that came from leftist media or organizations working against the Second Amendment. None of the troubling charges have been proven true. And whats printed in this gun blog or others about the NRA’ troubles is not proven to be true.

    Even the charges by the NY AG are not proven.

    I am not saying there is not funny business going on at NRA HQ. I am saying let those charged have their day to defend themselves and be tried in a court of law. However does anyone believe gun makers or gun rights organizations can get a fair unbiased trial in NY, VA, CA, CT, OR, or other communist leaning states ? I don’t.

    For folks who are strongly against Red Flag confiscations without due process some of you have no problem convicting an individual before they have had their day in court.

  20. Was listening to a news report about this while driving home from work. The amounts of money claimed to have been taken for personal use, for use by WLP’s relatives, friends, business buddies. Millions of dollars a year, even as the NRA was reporting publicly that it was under financial strain. WLP had a $17 million retirement plan, or has that still I don’t know.

    I was driving so it’s not like I could take notes. But those numbers, millions in a single year just for “Black Car Services”, that means limos and chauffeurs. Also private jets. And sending relatives on trips where WLP was not present and no NRA business was intended. Safaris, of course those too.

    All out of the membership’s pocket.

    We need a new NRA, this one’s busted.

  22. Is she gonna file suit on BLM next? Check their financial records. Not a fucking dime goes to anything but the leadership. You don’t solve bad leadership with political warfare. This is not good not matter what you dumbass prima donnas think.

  24. The NRA has stood for “Negotiating Rights Away” since at least 1934 with their acquiescence of the National Firearms Act, their complicity in the 1968 Gun Control Act, Their approval of the 1984 Hughe’s Amendment of the FOPA, their hand in the 1993 Federal Assault Weapons Ban and their quarterbacking of the Constitutionally nebulous and de facto Bump Stock ban a mere few years ago.

    The NSSF only has corporate interests at heart for the firearms industry; and as long as their profits are not threatened, they’ll go along with any proposed law or ban.

    The NRA and the NSSF *never* were a gun-rights organizations or a civil rights groups, and they should never be conflated as such. They are merely a tax-free pocket-lining, palm-greasing lobbying entities masquerading as one.

    Organizations like the SAF, GOA, etc. all put their money where their mouths are and most state-level orgs do as well. Your financial support is better served with those organiations whose actions are in step with their rhetoric.

    Our rights are natural rights, endowed from birth and not granted by our government. No effort to allow *any* of them to be subverted in one way or another should ever be construed as a “compromise”; only capitulation.

  25. I would like to know just how many people at the NSSF are involved in the corruption at the NRA???
    And don’t tell they’re not involved. They all attend the same firearms cocktail parties.

  26. The bill came due long ago when voices in the NRA complained about out-right corruption on the part of la-Pierre and his cronies and were removed from positions. You all who are members should have either withheld funds or quit when they wouldn’t fix their corruption issues. In today’s climate where anything can be used against you, the NRA only has the NRA to blame for its issues.

  27. How many major, as in landmark, lawsuits have the GOA and SAF won? Just curious. I know the GOA has won a few small local suits. Do either of them have the track record of major judicial gun rights victories the NRA has?

  28. Do you all think Cuomo and his AG lapdog Ms. James will stop with the NRA? They hate US and what we believe. Do I think WLP should be out of the NRA and in jail? I do. I haven’t given money since the Indianapolis convention but I will be giving money in support of the NRA in this fight as this is a fight against us. I’ll fight for substantial changes at the NRA once we beat back this. The NRA is the biggest target but I know NY and the evil that is the Cuomo administration; they will not stop until we are all gone.

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