I suspect many/most of you are at least somewhat aware of some of the difficult circumstances currently surrounding the NRA. I expect you will become increasingly more so as the shitstorm continues to grow. And it will. And it’s serious
In a capsule (volumes of news stories in exhausting detail have been written of late which you can easily find), it began late last month when the NRA announced that it was suing its longtime advertising partner, Ackerman McQueen, claiming fraudulent billing practices and gross overcharges (AMcQ was paid in excess of $40 million last year by the NRA). This claim additionally appeared to strain the relationship between NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and titular NRA President Oliver North, who is paid $0 by NRA but reportedly in excess of $1 million by Ackerman McQueen. Charges of self-aggrandizement by several NRA executives were leveled with North reportedly threatening to extort LaPierre unless he resigned. In this struggle, LaPierre survived (momentarily) and North is gone.
The NRA also launched suit against the State of New York, claiming it was unfairly attempting to destroy the NRA’s recently created insurance product, CarryGuard, by unfairly using the State’s leverage with the insurance commission and other financial institutions. Perhaps in response, the Attorney General of the State of New York (who recently branded the NRA a “terrorist organization”) announced a new investigation into the organization with an eye towards revoking the its non-profit status, the effect of which would literally destroy the organization.
All of the recent reporting – which has been voluminous – has been very damning indeed and paints a very dark picture of the future of the NRA. I’m sure you can imagine how the likes of former Mayor Blumberg, Gabby Giffords and the rest of the anti-gun crowd are salivating over the prospect of the extinction of the NRA, which appears to be a very real possibility. I expect we’ll be reading about this story for months to come.
The threat that the NRA is facing is real and the possible/likely consequences cannot be overstated. Unfortunately, most of the wounds the NRA is suffering are self-inflicted. Unlike the hyperbole the NRA typically spouts, this time – I believe – their future is in real doubt. Stay tuned.