by Jim Shepherd of The Outdoor Wires is one of the more astute observers of the firearms world. It doesn’t hurt that he helped Ted Turner found CNN. He, of course, doesn’t take credit for what CNN has become in the years since he left!
He devoted some of his column this morning to the Federal court battle between the NRA and Ackerman McQueen. Continuing the divorce theme, he said it would drive a divorce attorney to drink.
Actually, it’s more like the Borgia family chronicles than litigation between two groups of adults. Replace the “he said-she said” with “the defendant alleges” and you get the picture. Up is down, black is white, right is wrong, and inside is outside-depending on which document you’re reading.
Central to all this, as he apparently insists on being in virtually every matter, is Wayne LaPierre. The NRA characterizes him as the ceaselessly crusading reformer, out to save the National Rifle Association from the Oklahoma hordes determined to loot the treasury, burn the building and at least savage the five million members. Ackerman McQueen draws a somewhat different picture: that of a man obsessed with absolute control of everyone and everything around him except his spending habits. There, he’s more like a drunken sailor on a short shore leave.
It’s ugly, it’s personal, and it’s likely going to get worse before it resolves itself. No one on either side looks good in this situation, and that’s about as positive a face as anyone can put on it. It’s also about all I can tell you without either speculating or presenting gossip as fact.
Jim’s correct: it’s ugly, it’s personal, and none of the participants looks good.
I commented on this elsewhere yesterday:
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I think the VNRA is doomed.
If you read the dueling Ack-Mac/NRA filings, they boil down to:
NRA: We incompetently left Ack-Mac without adult supervision, and they treated us as their personal cow to be milked.
Ak-Mac: LaPierre et al treated NRA as their personal cow to be milked, used us as the hired hand, and is blaming us because the cow’s going dry.
If either one of them, or both, is only telling a fraction of the truth, the VNRA has become such a toxic asset that no honorable and competent person should be willing to lake on the liabilities, and legal responsibility.
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