As the National Rifle Association’s recent tax filing revealed, NRA EVP and CEO Wayne LaPierre got a big salary bump last year. This, during a time of unprecedented charges of cronyism, self-dealing and lavish spending on travel and wardrobe.
Not to mention the drain on the association funds as a result of fighting a flurry of lawsuits and counter-suits with the NRA’s former President, its former advertising agency, and the state of New York, among others. Oh, there are also the dual investigations into the NRA’s spending and business practices being conducted by New York’s attorney general and the District of Columbia.
All of this has combined to present a real threat to the viability and possibly the very survival of the NRA.
Still, LaPierre’s pulling in more compensation. As the Seattle Times reported . . .
According to the filings, known as 990s, longtime NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre’s total compensation rose to more than $2 million. His base salary went from $1.17 million to $1.27 million, he received a bonus of about $455,000, and he got about $366,000 from a deferred compensation plan, according to the documents cited in media reports.
As you might expect, the 57% pay increase hasn’t gone over well with rank and file members, some of whom have been waging a battle to make the Association and its board more accountable.
“This is further evidence that, at this point, LaPierre is more of a burden than an asset to American gun owners,” said Rob Pincus, a longtime NRA member and firearms instructor who is a member of Save the Second, a group calling for LaPierre’s resignation and seeking changes to the NRA.
Pincus is part of Save the Second, the organization that’s working to make the NRA more responsive to members. They’ve proposed a number reforms intended to do just that.
With the board largely purged of those who dared to challenge the status quo and the LaPierre faction’s grip on the operation, Save the Second is collecting NRA voting member signatures to get a vote on term limits before the board for the January meeting.
As Save the Second describes the effort . . .
Our first petition initiative was the amendment on director attendance, and we collected more than twice the number of signatures required for a Board vote! Unfortunately the petition was subsequently ignored, and referred to committee to discuss its “merits.”
This next petition will focus on Term Limits. We believe term limits are necessary to bring new ideas and perspective into the board in order to change and evolve with modern gun culture and it’s opponents. A board member who remains on the board for too long can grow complacent and disconnected with their work (which can explain the abysmal attendance rates), and a good level of churn in the directors is necessary to remove that complacency. The term limits amendment will do just that.
The additional bylaw reads as follows:
No Director shall be eligible to serve on the Board of Directors more than twelve (12) years cumulatively, regardless of consecutive or non-consecutive service.
The deadline for the petitions is December 2. If you’re an NRA voting member and would like to help Save the Second reach its goal and force the issue at the next NRA Board meeting, click here for more details.
When the NRA Supported Gun Control
https://time.com/4431356/nra-gun-control-history/
BY ARICA L. COLEMAN
JULY 29, 2016
Think I’ll support another, more honest and loyal, 2nd Amendment advocacy group.
Wayne has to go before he pulls the house down around him…
Personally, I refuse to support a group that has a track record of betraying us. The nra is responsible for writing a number of unconstitutional ‘gun control’ laws. And is in large part responsible for the current legal predicament of our right.
“Think I’ll support another, more honest and loyal, 2nd Amendment advocacy group.” Well, be my guest. I’d rather give NRA, which already has connections and “boots on the ground” nationally and in every state, all of my money rather than waste it to pay salaries of people like the Dorr family cretins in various states, or GOA, NAGR or any other group you can come up with who can only dream of contacting anyone higher up in the legislative chain than perhaps a custodian in one of the statehouses. (They could never meet with a White House or US Capital custodian…)
People that believe NRA is now, or has been ineffective just have never spent much time in the political arena. Using the notion, as this “article does”, that the NY and DC AGs’ attempts to break NRA through their “investigations” is about as sensible as using the CDC’s “data” to show that firearms “violence” is an epidemic. Get real, Rod, and quit carrying Bloomberg’s, Steyer’s and Soro’s water for them. They’re more grateful than most people around this site could ever imagine…
Oh, and another thing is certain: Those 2 investigations that were mentioned, or even one of them would’ve broken the bank for any of the other so-called firearms groups, even if they pooled all their resources. They have a virtual soapbox and that’s about it when push comes to shove.
Think there’s something wrong with NRA? Join up, hang on for 5 years or do the Life thing and vote in the meetings or become a director. Good luck.
Agree.
NRA are corrupt bastards, but they are our corrupt bastards.
Treason can never be forgiven.
“In the 1920s, the National Revolver Association, the arm of the NRA responsible for handgun training, proposed regulations later adopted by nine states, requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon, five years additional prison time if the gun was used in a crime, a ban on gun sales to non-citizens, a one day waiting period between the purchase and receipt of a gun, and that records of gun sales be made available to police.
“The 1930s crime spree of the Prohibition era, which still summons images of outlaws outfitted with machine guns, prompted President Franklin Roosevelt to make gun control a feature of the New Deal. The NRA assisted Roosevelt in drafting the 1934 National Firearms Act and the 1938 Gun Control Act, the first federal gun control laws. These laws placed heavy taxes and regulation requirements on firearms that were associated with crime, such as machine guns, sawed-off shotguns and silencers. Gun sellers and owners were required to register with the federal government and felons were banned from owning weapons. Not only was the legislation unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court in 1939, but Karl T. Frederick, the president of the NRA, testified before Congress stating, “I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.”
https://time.com/4431356/nra-gun-control-history/
Irrelevant. Everyone who was involved in those episodes is long dead.
Not even close to being “irrelevant”, for the nra committed those treasonous acts as an organization. And their treasonous actions contributed to the deaths of God only knows how many people – tens of thousands at the very least.
“Think there’s something wrong with NRA? Join up, hang on for 5 years or do the Life thing and vote in the meetings or become a director. Good luck.”
But being angry on the internet is much easier.
It is just as easy to do either one. I bought lifetime membership last year with just a few mouse clicks and keystrokes. Although it was at a discount, I did it just so I could vote on board members.
In my old American Rifleman collection, I’m 90% sure it’s a 1962 issue, the NRA brags about supporting, and aiding the passage of, the National Firearms Act.
So we can safely state that the BS predates EVP LaPatootie.
You are probably right, sadly.
Along that line of thought.
NRA Proudly Negotiating Rights Away since 1934
http://www.keepandbeararms.com/NRA/NFA.htm
Yup. Do you remember Angel Shamaya?
Truly disgusting, & I’m a member.
Never fails, people making too much money & it goes to their head.
“Never fails, people making too much money & it goes to their head.”
I made too much money one year; it went to the IRS.
And the wife
Or ex wife. 🙄
I have yet to meet a president or a CEO of a major company or Corporation that wasn’t filthy rich
If this were a company or major corporation, I wouldn’t care what they were paid unless I was a stockholder. This is supposed to be a non-profit association that runs largely on the funding supplied by its members for their benefit, not the CEO’s personal slush fund.
You would be surprised, how many “non profit” organizations are led by ceos that make too much money. “non profit” does not mean that there are any limits on what the employees can earn…
Well aware of that. I can also choose not to contribute based on my personal assessment of their worth to the organization and the decision to pay them that amount.
I wonder if that money from Wayne’s pay raise could have helped keep Virginia from going full KKK? We will never know, but at least Wayne got more control and more money. Without Wayne we would all be under KKK control.
What would you suggest NRA do with “Wayne’s money”? Go out and buy votes or commit fraud? There were enough lazy people in VA who just sat the election out that could’ve easily turned the tide. Perhaps the biggest reason was that the election did not coincide with a Presidential or half cycle where US Congress/Senate candidates were being voted on. I doubt anyone who would/could actually do a realistic polling of those who did not bother to go to the polls would find that “I think WLP gets too much money”, or NRA is a faux gun organization. Only here or at Ammoland… Amateurs.
Bloomberg spent money to buy gun control and install Democrats. He was successful with both. It was only a matter of how much, not if it could be done.
Money is what makes the world go round. It can buy you almost anything you want. Why you think Wayne is so stubborn to let go of the NRA and train a replacement?
Everyone knows it takes money to win an election in America. Otherwise we would all simply run for election
and take back America within a few years. When you look on the ballot you tend to see former business owners, lawyers and other people with money running for office.
The Democrats are not stupid. They spend their money on buying candidates or propaganda in certain weak locations to install their ideology in former strongholds. They invest in their communism while the “capitalist conservative” does no such thing for their ideology.
The Democrats are smarter than you. They will continue to win. You won’t stop them because you don’t even understand their high level plays. You think they are a bunch of morons when in reality they are evil geniuses. They taught your kids everything they live by.
I was more than happy to sign the petition but the details state you need to be a general member for the last 5 years. Why? I joined the organization to positively impact 2A. It took me precious little time to realize the organization is being run by someone acting like a king. I want Lil Wayne gone. Shouldn’t my voice count as well?
Seriously, if I have this wrong and need to be schooled, please do so. I don’t like what I see at the NRA and think my membership voice should be heard just a loudly as anyone else.
Respectfully and Thanks.
I believe that is to be compliant with the NRA’s own voting eligibility requirements. You must either be a life member or have five consecutive years of membership at non-life member tiers in order to vote. So the petition, being essentially an aggregate motion and vote levied against the board, needs to have similar requirements for its signatures.
“I don’t like what I see at the NRA and think my membership voice should be heard just a loudly as anyone else.”
Average/rank-and-file/annual membership is not really “membership”. It is “subscribership”. As such, your voice carries no weight. As in any good, self-serving organization, you must buy privilege.
I’ve been a NRA member for at least 5 years. The ONLY way I’ll rejoin is if old Wayne goes. I’m joining gunsavelife,ISRA and mebbe SAF. I haven’t figured out what if anything GOA does…and being sorta retired I’m not flush with cash.
Well, let it expire and you won’t have to worry about being able to vote. YEAH, MAN- YOU SHOWED ‘EM!
WOW…
Vote? Are you out of your mind? Your vote in the NRA elections means less than your vote for your reps in DC or for the president, at least there you have a primary where the voters choose who is running before deciding who gets the seat. With NRA the board largely controls which people are allowed to run and has a slate of recommended people. In addition the NRA board slots are a jungle selection (like California) so all the people running in any one year are all running for all the open slots, not individual seats in defined areas. There are 76 seats which is at least three times more than the BoD of the twice as large as the biggest BoD of any of the five largest non-profit organizations. All this is designed to insulate Wayne and his cronies from getting the boot.
As of next month I am no longer a member. Joined GOA three years ago and they get my donations and membership money since NRA has largely become a slush fund for Wayne and his faction.
It’s always been like that. You need to be a life member or member for 5+ years to vote. Many organizations have similar rules. As far as why it is, I presume to prevent a swarm of infiltrators joining for a month and swaying elections. You need to have shown some commitment before you can make changes to the organization. If you were a member of an organization that had been built up for many years would you want somebody who just joined yesterday to have the same voting weight as yourself?
“I was more than happy to sign the petition but the details state you need to be a general member for the last 5 years.” If you believe an organization as large as NRA should open themselves to being taken over by either rank amateurs or even bought-and-paid-for antigun people who’d joinn once only to vote to wreck the organization you really don’t understand much in the way of how things really are. Seriously- Soros spends more money trying to do away with privately owned firearms than just paying up say, 1 million new “members” at $35 a pop. That’d be cheap. And they’d even get a free NRA cap. I guess it’s just too damn difficult for people to even think anymore, especially when they are guided by “The Internet”.
Since they ignored the first petition with more than twice the number of signatures that were required, I’m not sure what Save the Second hopes to accomplish with this one.
The only thing they will listen to is money or the lack of it coming in, unfortunately.
And what was the criteria for the “bonus”?
Being the NRA’s lord and savior.
Thank you, that explains a lot of things.
Now you understand
If there was any serious question about whether the NRA exists to serve LaPierre or the other way around, it’s now been answered.
The NRA has become Wayne’s World, where providing Wayne and his cronies la buena vida is the primary mission, and protecting the Second Amendment, teaching marksmanship and firearms safety, etc. are just the hook to keep the money flowing from the suckers.
How can the NRA seriously claim to be in dire financial straits (and thus beg for more contributions) while at the same time massively increase Wayne’s already bloated salary + benefits package? Any NRA director who voted for this ought to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.
And to all of the “but . . but . . but . . . we just *gotta* support the NRA” folks out there in TTAG land, please explain why, in a time when the NRA’s finances are in trouble (according to the NRA itself), what in the world could *possibly* justify a 57% compensation increase for Wayne — on top of his already obscenely high compensation?
C’mon . . . we’re listening . . . .
La Pierre has to go. This has to be the first step to fix the darn place.
Term limits have never solved anything.
While there are entertaining machinations in and around the NRA, why does anyone think the BOD would allow a vote on essentially curbing the influence, benefit and compensation of being a board member? Especially the vote of members?
Sadly, once again I find I have to agree with Sam I Am.
Wayne put the fix in years ago by packing the board and contorting the BoD selection process. He’s purged NRA management and the Board (directly or indirectly) of those who might upset his applecart.
Short of him leaving voluntarily (or perhaps being forced out by NY), he’s not going anywhere. There could be a near unanimous cry at the next convention for him to go . . . and nothing will happen, because the Board is loaded with his bootlickers.
“Sadly, once again I find I have to agree with Sam I Am.”
What can I do to make it up to you?
” . . . and nothing will happen, because the Board is loaded with his bootlickers.”
OK, time to pressure the ‘Board’ to do what’s right…
well they will not get any more of my money until things change big time
I stopped giving years ago. The constant calls and emails asking for more money.
Did some of my money help? I’m sure it did but it was probably only a fraction of what I gave.
If he seriously makes that much money and that bonus, I’m glad I don’t give anymore.
Saw a few comments here saying you should support the NRA. Other comments about supporting GOA and others.
I have looked into the “others” and still haven’t given anything. I’m sure they’re doing good or at least trying to make changes happen. Hopefully.
I just wonder if they get big enough like the NRA if the same thing will happen with outrageous salaries.
I’ll keep my money in my pocket.
Oh whoopie the NRA.
Wayne has got to go. Disappointed in his greed, and poor management. He has let power go to his head and is hurting the cause. If he really truly carried for the cause he would defer his salary like Trump for the foreseeable future. It would go a long way to mend fences. Unless he has an awakening, it ain’t going to happen and I am lending my support to GOA etc.
I did not renew my NRA membership.
Should Lil Wayne leave I will rethink my position.
His departure should happen soon for fears over the viability of the organization.
Meantime, my Second Amendment support, beliefs and money go to Gun Owners of America and the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance.
Be consistent, brave and strong – heavy obstacles lay ahead.
Something that the eligible voters need to resolve come next ballot time, is to ” bullet vote ” instead of voting for the full 25, or whatever the number is at the time, and to vote only for those who have demonstrated their efforts to support the 2nd.
This might be one way that we can clear some of the lazy -ass BoD members who are only on the Board for the money or perks, instead of supporting our 2nd amendment rights; particularly those who do not attend the meetings when they should have to in order to earn their money.
It will take some time, but I believe if those who support Wayne are removed, and eventually Wayne, also; perhaps the NRA can get back to representing the members who joined the organization with the expection that their 2nd amendment rights would be defended and protected.
Who is paying you Zimmerman? Bloomberg, Soros, Obumer???
People are like water or electricity takes the easiest path. Easiest for me is keeping my money, I don’t have a penny or a dog in the NRA fight so I don’t give a f what they do. I represent myself that way if any personal interest is involved it gonna be mine.
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