NRA Board of Directors

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Substitute “NRA” For “Military” In This Article

July 21, 2019 by 3 Comments

Lt. Col. M. L. “Matt” Cavanaugh, Ph.D.,  just published an article entitled “How the Military Murders Meritocracy”. It was on the Modern War Institute at West Point’s website. Col. Cavanaugh is an active duty US Army strategist and a professor of practice with Arizona State University’s School of Politics and Global Studies.

Cavanaugh’s article dealt with military bureaucracy and the hindrance of a real meritocracy within it. He notes that soldier, sailors, marines, and airmen “self-silence” real and legitimate criticism because they fear a swift and painful reprisal by those above them. Doesn’t that sound like another large organization that I know and love?

Cavanaugh writes:

It’s under cover of that darkness that the rot in the system manifests in subtle ways. In a healthy meritocratic system, there would be a relatively free flow of honest feedback that enables the best idea, or the best person, to succeed—in respectful ways that improve organizational effectiveness. But that’s not the norm, as can be seen on any given day in any American military unit.


It’s the higher-ranking individual that ignores or denies or evades real problems flagged by a junior officer or noncommissioned officer. It’s the indirect, I-agree-with-you-completely-but-we-can’t-do-that-because-it-just-might-upset-someone-higher-up-the-chain conversation. It’s a subordinate’s quietly paralytic fear of confrontation with a senior.


Nobody talks about it, but it knocks military candor down at every turn, making us weaker all the time. Sometimes the emperor you serve isn’t wearing socks, or much of anything else, and as things stand in the US military, saying something about that nudity is so severely stifled it’s a wonder it ever happens. And our adversaries may be far from perfect, but they can certainly find the vulnerable chinks exposed by an emperor’s nudity.


Big, brittle systems with such weaknesses always get exploited. It’s a “when,” not an “if.”

If you were to substitute “NRA” for “military” and “manager” or “director” for “officer in these paragraphs, it could have been written about the National Rifle Association.

Ollie North and Richard Childress (and for a brief period, Carolyn Meadows) sought to get to the bottom of the some of the internal issues facing the NRA. Ollie and Richard are now in the wilderness and North is being sued by the NRA to avoid paying his rightful legal bills.

There are a number of board of directors members who are being quiet so as to avoid the further wrath of Wayne LaPierre and his henchmen (and women) in the Old Guard. Five directors have come out publicly saying they were removed from some or all of their committee assignments. There are more out there who have lost committee assignments yet have decided to not go public with it. The worst part about that is that Wayne is supposed to answer to the directors and not the other way around.

Our enemies who despise the Second Amendment as well as our freedoms know that the NRA is vulnerable. I get emails on a weekly – if not daily – basis from the Brady Campaign and the cult of personality known as Giffords saying the NRA is on its heels and please send us money. Attorneys General Letitia James (D-NY) and Karl Racine (D-DC) would not have issued subpoenas to the NRA if they didn’t sense weakness. The NRA is a “big, brittle system” and is getting those weaknesses exploited.

One thing I hear frequently is why doesn’t the Executive Committee or the entire Board of Directors just meet and vote Wayne out. If you’ve read the Bylaws you know it isn’t that simple. First, while the Executive Committee does have the power to suspend the Executive VP, it requires a 3/4s vote. That works out to 18 votes needed (3 officers plus 20 members elected from the BOD). However, to have a vote would require an Executive Committee meeting which is called at the discretion of the President. Second, the entire Board of Directors will be meeting in September in Alaska. If they decide to remove Wayne, it would take 57 votes. It just isn’t going to happen. I’m afraid the only way Wayne will leave is either in a hearse or if he gets a significantly large buyout to induce him to leave voluntarily. That is reality. Unfortunately.

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Even CNN Gets It Even If Wayne Doesn’t

July 21, 2019 by 1 Comment

I know CNN is the home of “fake news” and the rest of that nonsense. Still, even a blind squirrel can sometimes find an acorn. They had a story yesterday about the struggle of the NRA to maintain the political influence it had in 2016 in the 2020 elections. The lead for the story is the personal influence that former NRA-ILA director Chris Cox had with politicians. I mentioned the same thing in my post about Jason Ouimet being appointed the interim head of ILA.

From the CNN story:

The NRA accused Chris Cox — the man who had controlled the organization’s lobbying and political activities for more than 15 years — of trying to overthrow Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre, according to a lawsuit filed last month.


Cox denied the charge to The New York Times, but quickly resigned. His unceremonious sacking stunned NRA board members, who saw Cox as a potential successor to LaPierre, and infuriated political staffers. Some started packing up their desks, unsure of whether they would be ousted too, multiple NRA sources said.


That’s when the Washington power brokers really started to worry. Cox’s departure, after months of turmoil at the NRA, only amplified the sense that the gun-rights group might not be the political powerhouse in 2020 that it has been for decades, including notably in 2016.


When President Donald Trump convened a meeting with bipartisan lawmakers and signaled and openness to some gun control measures in the wake of a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead, it was Cox who showed up at the White House the following evening.


Afterward, Cox tweeted that Trump didn’t want gun control. For his part, Trump tweeted: “Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!”


The reservoir of goodwill toward Cox ran deep on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.


“Every Republican senator who matters has Chris’ cell phone number,” one GOP operative who worked closely with Cox on the political side told CNN. “And vice versa.”


The operative recounted one meeting between Cox and a senator, ostensibly about a policy issue, that instead was focused primarily on the senator’s favorite hunting grounds in his home state. Cox knew them all in advance — and had been to them himself.


Cox and his team held weekly calls with Republican committees to share tips about ongoing campaigns — calls that increased in frequency in the lead-up to key primaries and Election Day, according to former officials.
“Senators didn’t call Wayne,” the GOP operative said of LaPierre. “They called Chris.”


That’s partly because it was Cox’s job to maintain those contacts, while LaPierre oversaw the organization. Cox has moved on to launch his own Washington consulting firm. But unease over his departure — and LaPierre’s efforts to consolidate power — is fueling uncertainty about the direction of the organization overall.

 Honestly, from my conversations with others, I don’t think Wayne LaPierre really understood the value of Chris to the campaign side of NRA-ILA. All he could see was a potential rival for power that had to be vanquished. As to the supposed “coup”, I think it is a figment of his imagination as it has been played upon by the NRA’s outside counsel William Brewer III. Witness the gratuitous mention of Chris in one paragraph of the NRA’s lawsuit against Ollie North.

I am going to repeat what I wrote at the beginning of the month:  Wayne LaPierre’s legacy will be as the guy who caused us to lose gun rights in order to preserve his perks if the Republicans fail to hold on to at least one House of Congress and the Presidency. His paranoia and arrogance caused him to listen to the wrong guy and we are all suffering as a result.

Adding to that statement, I would say that those NRA Board members and others who stand 100% behind Wayne will be complicit in this loss of gun rights. They will blame us, they will blame Bloomberg and Soros, they will blame anyone but themselves. The reality is that they did not want to excise what has become a cancer upon the National Rifle Association. Wayne did do good in the past but the past is past and, like with a championship football coach who no longer wins, it is time to move on.

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The Old Guard Is Not Happy And Marion Wants Us To Know It

July 15, 2019 by 4 Comments

Marion Hammer, former NRA president and WLP supporter extraordinaire, sent out a public email today that was posted to Facebook. She takes the position that the purges are the prerogative of the president and that those who got purged were “not professional”. What an utter crock of bullshit.

Those purged – and especially those whose purge hasn’t been made public yet – are, on the whole, some of the most professional, most responsible, most cognizant of their fiduciary responsibility, and most serious about the Second Amendment on the whole board. That they are not toadies to Wayne and his posse says something about their dedication to the mission of the NRA which is the Second Amendment and not the preservation of Wayne’s job.

Since Ms. Hammer chooses to include bloggers as those that have suspect motives, let me tell you mine with regard to the NRA. As an Endowment Life member I want to see a stronger, more pro-active advocate for the Second Amendment. Moreover, while I am a conservative/libertarian, I want the NRA to focus exclusively on the Second Amendment and gun rights. I don’t care what your position is on abortion, I don’t care whether you approve or disapprove of the LGBTQ community, and I don’t care about hundreds of extraneous issues not related to the Second Amendment. I care about the Second Amendment. Period. Finally, as someone who has served as both an officer and on the Board of Directors of a non-profit organization, I want to see a Board of Directors taking their fiduciary responsibility seriously and making the hired management subservient to them and not vice-versa. Unfortunately, it seems that the Board is subservient to Wayne and not the other way around.

Read Ms. Hammer’s entire missive and make up your own mind. I’ve reprinted it below.

—–Original Message—–
From: mphammer1
To: MPHammer1
Sent: Sun, Jul 14, 2019 12:06 pm
Subject: Committee Assignments

DATE: July 14, 2019
TO: NRA Board Members and Friends
FROM: Marion P. Hammer, NRA Past President
RE: Committee Assignments

Committee assignments are the prerogative of the President of the National Rifle Association of America. The assignment process is taken very seriously with meetings in person and even more meetings over teleconferences. I don’t know of any NRA President who hasn’t consulted with other officers and leaders before making the final selections.

This year the process took longer because there were numerous discussions. To say that this year is unlike any other would be an understatement. The NRA finds itself under attack. These attacks are well funded. They are well coordinated. They come from noteworthy and powerful gun control advocates.

But, they are not the only ones attacking the NRA. We are also under attack by one of our former vendors. These attacks have been particularly nasty and have played out in the press.

And, it doesn’t stop there. Some within our ranks – members of the NRA Board of Directors – have joined in these attacks. There have been leaks of proprietary and confidential information to the front pages of newspapers, websites and social media pages.

Members of the board have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of our Association. Yet, some have chosen not to do so. When given the opportunity to speak their minds, silence was chosen. And now, after the time to be heard in an appropriate setting has passed, the agitation continues. That is truly unfortunate.

We must now move on. Those who truly care about the Second Amendment and Freedom will move on. The NRA has real work to do. We have significant challenges – the 2019 elections and of course the pivotal 2020 elections. Let’s not forget, we must get through these politically motivated witch hunts in New York and now the District of Columbia.

Some board members were, in fact, stripped of their committee assignments. I know that was a hard decision. But, we stand behind it. I went through it myself in 1997 and it was the right thing to do. Some have made reference to a “naughty” and a “nice” list. But it’s actually more of a “professional” and “not professional” list. There are 76 of us. We don’t expect all of us to march lockstep. But, we must will hold steadfast that board members must act in a professional manner. That is a non-negotiable.

To those who are seeking facts, it is recommended that you review our legal documents – including the attachments – all available in the public arena. If you have trouble accessing these documents, simply request them and they will be emailed to you. Using news stories, a blog or social media post or relying on leaks to form your judgements only means that you’re forming your opinions based on the viewpoint of the author. Who knows what their motives may be?

There are also numerous well-informed board members who have taken the time and made the effort to learn the facts rather than rely on falsehoods and gossip. Reach out to them – it is your duty and in the NRA’s best interests that you inform yourself of what the NRA is really facing and what the NRA is really doing about it.

As I said earlier, these committee assignments are – and always have been – the prerogative of the President. Those who didn’t get an assignment might want to consider whether or not they want to help us save the Second Amendment or continue on a course detrimental to NRA and our mission. The decision is ultimately theirs.”

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The Purges Continue, Part IV

July 14, 2019 by 1 Comment

In my Facebook feed this morning I saw another member of the NRA Board of Directors got cut off from his committees. This time it is LTC Robert Brown who has been a board member for a long time and has been outspoken about things including AckMac for years. Brown is the founder and publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine.

From his Facebook post:

FYI, all SoF’ers… I also have been dropped off “Grassroots Development Committee,” “Veteran’s Affairs,” and “Legislative Policy.” No body in the NRA power structure has the guts to explain to me why this was done. NRA leadership lacks any moral character and basically falls under the label of loathsome toads.

I don’t know if this represent all committees that Col. Brown served on or not. I do have a message into him asking about that.

UPDATE: Col. Brown was reappointed to the Publications Committee and the Special Contributions Committee but dropped from those mentioned above. He was kind enough to respond to my Facebook messenger question.

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The Purges Continue, Part III

July 12, 2019 by 1 Comment

Another day and another NRA Board member reports that he has been removed from all his committees. In this case, it is Sean Maloney of Ohio. He, along with Tim Knight, are two of the stalwarts of the grass roots in the NRA. When the recall campaign began in Colorado a few years ago, both he and Tim answered the call and went to Colorado to help in the successful effort.

You may also recall that when CarryGuard was introduced, a number of companies that offered legal protection services for concealed carriers were summarily disinvited to the NRA Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta. Sean Maloney’s Second Call Defense was one of those organizations.

Below is the form letter that Sean received from NRA President Carolyn Meadows.

Sean responded to Mrs. Meadows with this letter:

July 12, 2019


Carolyn D. Meadows
President NRA
National Rifle Association of America
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA 22030


RE: NRA Committee Assignments for 2019-2020


Dear Madam President,


I recently received notification from you, that you removed me from all my NRA Board of Directors Committee Assignments, with no explanation. Even after repeated phone calls to you, which resulted in voicemails asking for a return call, I still have not received a return phone call, letter or email of explanation.


Shockingly, you even removed me from the NRA-ILA Grassroots Development Committee, after many years of serving on that committee with perfect attendance. After years of volunteer grassroots activism, I was recognized in 2010 with the NRA-ILA Jay M. Littlefield Volunteer of the Year Award and recognized on the floor of the Ohio House of Representatives for my work as an Election Volunteer Coordinator for NRA-ILA in Ohio.


In 2012, I was inducted into the NRA-ILA Election Volunteer Coordinator Hall of Fame, resulting from my time and dedication to the Grassroots Division as an Election Volunteer Coordinator.


Over the years, as a Volunteer for the NRA, paying my own way for travel expenses, and receiving no compensation from the NRA, I have continued to dedicate myself to grassroots activism.


In 2013, I traveled to Colorado to participate in the successful recall election effort of two anti-gun Senators. Again, in 2013, I traveled to Virginia under the direction of NRA-ILA Grassroots Division to campaign on behalf of pro-gun Gubernatorial, Senate of Virginia and Virginia House of Delegates Candidates.


In 2014, I traveled to Connecticut, Iowa and Ohio, under the direction of NRA-ILA Grassroots Division and campaigned on behalf of Federal State and Local pro-gun candidates during Primary and General Elections.


In 2015, I traveled to Virginia under the direction of NRA-ILA Grassroots Division to campaign on behalf of Senate of Virginia and Virginia House of Delegates pro-gun Candidates.


In 2016, I traveled to Florida to assist in the General Election; that same election cycle I returned to Ohio where I volunteered for the top NRA-ILA Campaign Field Office in the Country, in support of Donald Trump, and other Federal, State and Local candidates.


In 2018, I campaigned in Ohio under the direction of NRA-ILA Grassroots Division on behalf of Federal, State, and Local candidates. I also hosted a pro-gun meet and greet Ohio Candidate Forum for all Federal, State, and Local pro-gun candidates up for election in Ohio. In Ohio, under the direction of the NRA-ILA, I assisted in successfully electing a 100% pro-gun Executive Slate.


Earlier this year, in May, I co-hosted a shooting event for my pro-gun Congressman Warren Davidson. Most recently, I traveled to Sandusky County, Ohio, and spoke to a “100 NRA Club” considering ending its affiliation with the NRA, because of recent concerns. I successfully persuaded them to remain an NRA Club.


Yet, after all I have done in support of the Grassroots Development Committee, and all the other NRA Committees of which I faithfully served, I was blacklisted. I can only surmise, that I was blacklisted for taking actions to obey my oath as an NRA Board Member, and follow the Code of Ethics for Directors of Nonprofit Corporations; which required me to exercise my fiduciary duty of care; which caused me to question management decisions within the NRA, and to further investigate matters of which I was made aware.


I respectfully request that you reconsider your decision to remove me from all Committees, particularly the Grassroots Development Committee, and reappoint me to the Grassroots Development Committee, and further communicate to me your rational for removing me from all my Committee assignments.


Very truly yours,


/s/ Sean Maloney


Sean Maloney


enclosure

Sean is only the latest Board member to acknowledge his removal from committees. There will be more to come. Of that you can be sure.

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Another AG Gets Into The Act (Against The NRA)

July 12, 2019 by 2 Comments

First it was NY Attorney General Letitia James who issued subpoenas to the National Rifle Association as part of an investigation to see whether they are violating New York’s non-profit organization laws. Now it seems that Karl Racine, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, wants to get into the action.

From the Washington Post which first reported it:

The office of Attorney General Karl A. Racine is seeking financial documents from the NRA and its foundation. The NRA Foundation is chartered in the District and the NRA is registered as a nonprofit and does business there.

“The Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia has issued subpoenas to the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and the NRA Foundation, Inc., as part of an investigation into whether these entities violated the District’s Nonprofit Act,” Racine said in a statement.

He continued: “We are seeking documents from these two nonprofits detailing, among other things, their financial records, payments to vendors, and payments to officers and directors.”

The Code of the District of Columbia gives the Attorney General significant powers when it comes to non-profit corporations. The Attorney General can seek the dissolution of a non-profit, can impose “a constructive trust” on compensation for directors, officers, and managers, and can seek other equitable or injunctive relief as the courts deem necessary. The language of the code gives him great leeway in bringing such actions. For example, if he deems that the corporation has “continued to act contrary to its nonprofit purposes”, this give his office grounds to bring actions in court. That language is so wide open that virtually any non-profit could be taken to court if the Attorney General has an axe to grind. Racine has used these laws against the Trump inaugural committee and the Catholic Church.

How many more of these type actions will it take for the Wayne LaPierre loyalists on the NRA Board of Directors to realize that they have a serious problem on their hands? I fear that unfortunately all we will get is another “ignore the man behind the curtain, all is OK” statement from the Meadows-Cotton-Lee cabal as opposed to the concrete actions needed to shore up the NRA.

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The Purge Continues, Part II (Updated)

July 10, 2019 by 2 Comments

More NRA Board of Directors are announcing that they’ve received notification of being removed from their prior committees. The latest is Duane Liptak. In addition to being a board member, he is the Executive VP of Magpul Industries as well as a veteran of the US Marine Corps where he served as both an infantryman and as a F/A-18 pilot.

From his Facebook post:

I’ve been out of the office, but I’m back now. Last year, I was chairman of the education and training committee, I was on military and veterans affairs, and I was on sport shooting and action shooting. I’ve repeatedly requested finance and legislative policy since I started my involvement with the NRA, and I have attended those meetings whenever I could. I guess I’ll have less schedule conflicts to worry about when attending other meetings since I’ve been stripped of all my formal committee assignments except action shooting. I guess at least Julie A. Golob still likes me. 😁 Despite a lot of effort on my part to promote the importance of the organization and remind folks of the capabilities of the NRA that we must preserve as we move forward, I have landed on the “naughty list”. This needs to get sorted out, now.

Duane is correct about his role in promoting the importance of the NRA. A quick Google search shows open letters from him as well as an op-ed stressing the role of the NRA in promoting and preserving gun rights.

You can see his committee assignment below.

I guess since Duane is assigned to at least one committee, he is only on the slightly naughty list unlike Tim, Allen, and Esther who are on the really naughty list. I’m not sure what he said to run afoul of Wayne and his toadies but he must have said something.

UPDATE: It was confirmed to me today that Tiffany Johnson was removed from the Outreach Committee. Given she is an attorney, a trainer with Rangemaster, a woman, and not the least a person of color, removing her from that committee in retribution for her open letter to the Board of Directors was both stupid and vindictive. As she says in her blog post about her service on the committee, her suggestions and comments were well received until “the letter”.  Just when the NRA needs to be broadening its base and have the ideal person to help in Tiffany, they do something like this. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

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The Purges Continue

July 8, 2019 by 2 Comments

When you ran afoul of Josef Stalin, if you were lucky you got sent to the gulag. If you were not so lucky, you got the proverbial ounce of lead and burial in an unmarked grave. You were also airbrushed out of any picture in which you appeared with the General Secretary.

The picture above illustrates what I mean.

Mao and the Chinese Communists engaged in similar erasures. Qin Bangxian aka Bo Gu was the 3rd General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party who ran afoul of Mao. He died in a mysterious plane crash along with other senior Party officials after attending a conference as a delegate of the CCP. You can see him in the far left of the first photo with Mao on the far right.

Committees are where much of the work of the National Rifle Association’s board gets done. You usually are assigned to a board where you have a history. For example, a long time competitor might be assigned to a committee dealing with competitions while someone who has a history in the grass roots is assigned to the grass roots committee.

Just like with Stalin’s purges, members of the NRA Board of Directors who have spoken out are now being erased. In this case, they are being removed from their committee assignments. While the letters are signed by NRA President Carolyn Meadows, I think the assumption is that these purges are at the instigation of Wayne LaPierre.

The first to report this was Tim Knight in a Facebook post on June 30th.

And now the retribution: Because I publicly expressed concern over current NRA management’s leadership and spurious spending, I am being punished. It has come down from the Officers of the NRA, as I publicly predicted, I will not be given any committee assignments. 

Tim does remain a member of the Board of Directors. For now.

Next to report being purged was Lt.Col. Allen West. A copy of his letter is below.

 Finally, Esther Quisenberry Schneider disclosed that she has been purged from all committee assignments. As her comments on her letter make clear, it comes after she has spoken out and has called for Wayne LaPierre to resign.

I have a feeling that these three are merely the tip of the iceberg.

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I Can’t Disagree With This Comment

June 26, 2019 by

A comment was made on Facebook which I think epitomizes what some of us see as the issue at the NRA.

Chris Meissen wrote in reference to a story in a non-profit journal covering the issues at the NRA:

LaPierre is behaving like a mini-Maduro, dragging the organization down around him while trying to hold on to power.

I think he has hit the nail on the head. Wayne LaPierre’s scorched earth approach to maintaining power may be good for Wayne but is horrible for the NRA as an organization. I acknowledge there are many good people on the Board of Directors. Some want Wayne gone and some still support him.

As to why those who still support him do so, I can think of three reasons. You have those who are in thrall of him like NRA President Carolyn Meadows based upon what he did years ago. Then you have those afraid of him for whatever reason. Finally, you have those who fear that with Wayne gone the golden goose will be gone with him. Thus you have the delusional, the fearful, and the greedy keeping Wayne in his position of power at least for the time being.

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The Empire Circles The Wagons

May 23, 2019 by 4 Comments

An email from the officers of the NRA along with a number of former presidents was sent out to certain members this evening. It was also posted on Facebook by certain members of the Board of Directors. I saw it on Todd Rathner’s page. While the Complementary Spouse received the email, I did not. Perhaps it was only sent to Annual Members and not to Endowment Life Members like me.

Here is the letter as copied from Todd Rathner’s Facebook page. I would also read the comments as well.

A message from the NRA’s current Officers and Past Presidents.


May 22, 2019


My Fellow NRA Member:


Since the NRA was founded almost 150 years ago, our adversaries have repeatedly tried to take us down. Today is no different. A recent burst of media claims the NRA is vulnerable, financially unstable, and weakened in its fight to defend the Second Amendment. Obviously intent on not letting the facts get in the way of a good story, most reports offer a distorted and inaccurate view of the NRA. As officers and past presidents of the NRA, we write today to set the record straight.


As you may know, we recently convened in Indianapolis for one of the largest NRA conventions in our history. More than 80,000 of our members showed up to gather as one NRA family – to support our Association and celebrate our nation’s constitutional freedoms. During our annual Members Meeting on April 27, some asked for greater insight into three issues: the NRA’s financial affairs, our direction and strategy, and the supervisory role being played by our board of directors. We had an open forum and spirited discussion.


Of course, our discussions were portrayed as a sort of family feud. (Infighting at the NRA – Chaos and Controversy!). At the NRA, we take pride in the fact that our Association is inclusive and invites the active participation of every member. Every member has an opportunity to voice any concern they may have at the Members Meeting. In fact, our greatest privilege is hearing from our members. Like many of you, that’s why we were at the Members Meeting in the first place and spent countless hours on the convention floor.


FACT: During a board of directors meeting on April 29, Wayne LaPierre was elected by acclamation to continue serving as our CEO and Executive Vice President. The board also unanimously elected Carolyn D. Meadows to serve as our new president.


Perhaps looking for a way to counter the narrative about a stronger, more unified NRA, questions have now conveniently surfaced about our financial situation and our standing in the regulatory arena. There also have been frequent attacks on Wayne’s personal character.


FACT: According to the NRA’s chief financial officer, we are on budget in 2019. The NRA is meeting all banking and supplier financial obligations and we continue to aggressively manage our cost structure to offset the orchestrated and calculated attacks against NRA’s finances in 2018. Put another way, our financial house is in order – we aren’t going away.


We have full confidence in the NRA’s accounting practices and commitment to good governance.


FACT: The Association’s financials are audited and its tax filings are verified by one of the most reputable firms in the world. Internally, the Association has a conflict of interest policy and, where appropriate, related-party transactions are reviewed and approved by the board’s Audit Committee.


Simply put, we are well-positioned on the regulatory front and poised to handle all challenges that confront us.


Personal attacks against the NRA’s leaders are nothing new. Recent ones have focused on wardrobe purchases and travel expenses incurred by Wayne. If members hear of an allegation, they can be assured that it has been or will be addressed by the appropriate committees within our board of directors.


FACT: We have committees in place to oversee issues relating to Accounting, Legal Affairs, and Ethics, among others – and every board member is invited to attend these meetings. Please remember that all of us are elected by you – our members. We are not elected by Wayne or anyone on the NRA executive team. We serve as your elected representatives.


FACT: Over the years, Wayne had been advised by the NRA’s advertising professionals to invest in his professional wardrobe due to his numerous public and media appearances. We understand that this was the same agency that facilitated the clothing purchases. What wasn’t as evident in this “disclosure” is that the clothing expenses referenced in media reports dated back to expenses from 15 years ago! To put it in perspective, over this time period, Wayne has participated in thousands of events and hundreds of TV appearances, and personally directed fundraising efforts that total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In any event, this practice was discontinued some time ago.


FACT: The vast majority of the travel in question involved donor outreach, fundraising, and stakeholder engagement. As an example, The Wall Street Journal reported that a trip to Italy was “tied to a 2015 documentary feature on the Italian gun maker posted on NRATV.” Beretta, as you may know, is a major supporter of the NRA and our Second Amendment.


We are not inclined to further discuss unfounded attacks on our organization, political infighting, or a “weakened” NRA.


However, we will say this: Our adversaries will not divide us and any further discussion about the so-called “demise of the NRA” is only meant to distract us from our mission. This is how it goes when you stand on the bedrock of constitutional freedom – and represent the last line of defense against a campaign to take down the Second Amendment.


While board members may argue, and perhaps even disagree as to tactics, the support Wayne and the current leadership enjoys reflects our assessment of his past and future value to the association as well as our realization that our opponents know they have to take him down if they want to weaken the NRA.


As one NRA member recently said, the true story of the NRA won’t be found in today’s press clippings. It will be written in the history books.


Wayne has been standing shoulder-to-shoulder with all of us for most of his professional life. He has our support. A campaign to oust him failed – as the facts emerged, true motivations became apparent, and we agreed as to who should lead our fight for freedom. We are now moving forward.


FACT: We will confront our opponents, defend our values, and proudly continue our tradition as the greatest civil rights organization in the world.


Just like you, we care about the Second Amendment and our NRA. Just as you do, we know that our fights today are less for us and more for our children and our grandchildren. Just like you, we are all courageous foot soldiers in our fight for freedom. Every single one of us in this fight matters. The Second Amendment is where it is today because of all of OUR efforts. That’s why you matter to our cause and our Association.


We are the NRA. United we stand. And together, we’ll win.


Signed,


Carolyn D. Meadows President
Charles L. Cotton First Vice President
Lt. Col. Willes K. Lee USA (Ret) Second Vice President


Allan D. Cors Past President
James W. Porter Past President
David A. Keene Past President
Ronald L. Schmeits Past President
John C. Sigler Past President
Sandra S. Froman Past President
Kayne B. Robinson Past President
Marion P. Hammer Past President
Robert K. Corbin Past President

As with Meeting of Members, Lt. Col. Oliver North USMC (Ret) is absent from this list though he is a former president. Also missing from this list of past presidents was Pete Brownell. Thus, you have the last two past presidents not as signatories to this letter.