NRA-ILA

Uncategorized

Old Enemies Become Friends

August 14, 2024 by 1 Comment

I saw something put out yesterday by NRA-ILA that brought back memories.

If you have ever read Adam Winkler’s book Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America (#commission earned), you know there were those within the NRA that tried to discourage the Heller case. The fear was that a loss in the Supreme Court would forever end the Second Amendment as an individual right. Nonetheless, Alan Gura, Bob Levy, and Clark Neily persisted and the case went to the Supreme Court where it was won.

Alan Gura has since moved on to become the VP for Litigation at the Institute for Free Speech. He is the lead counsel on an amicus brief supporting the respondents in a case before the US Supreme Court. That case, Lackey v. Stinnie et al, deals with entitlement to attorneys fees in civil rights cases and preventing the government from strategically mooting cases to avoid paying these fees.

From ILA:

The issue before the Court is whether plaintiffs who win a preliminary injunction granting their requested relief are “prevailing parties” under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b)—and thus entitled to attorney fees—when that injunction is never reversed. The amici argue that if such plaintiffs are not “prevailing parties,” governments that violate constitutional rights would be able to avoid attorney fee awards by strategically mooting cases. This would embolden abusive governments and discourage public interest litigation. By contrast, requiring the government to pay attorney fees for violating constitutional rights deters such violations and ensures that civil rights plaintiffs can afford to vindicate their rights through litigation.

Joining the NRA and Institute for Free Speech as amici in this brief are Southeastern Legal Foundation, Cato Institute, New Civil Liberties Alliance, Liberty Justice Center, and Second Amendment Foundation.

I am glad to see old adversaries now cooperating. Even more important is the NRA’s win in NRA v. Vullo which dealt with free speech and governmental coercion intended to suppress it. There is no question the case was a win for the NRA but it was also remanded back to the Second Circuit for further proceedings. There is nothing to say New York State won’t adopt a law or regulation that would effective moot this case. Attorneys have told me it can cost upwards of $1 million (or more) to bring a case up through the courts and be heard by the Supreme Court. It would be nice to have New York’s Department of Financial Services have to pay this back to the NRA.

Uncategorized

A Juxtaposition

May 7, 2023 by 4 Comments

Checking my email this afternoon, I found links to two posts regarding the failure to pass HB 189, permitless concealed carry, in North Carolina.

The first is from the NRA-ILA and is a short post about the failure of the bill to meet the crossover deadline.

From NRA-ILA:

This week, HB 189, originally titled the ‘NC Constitutional Carry Act’, moved through several committees in the North Carolina House of Representatives. As drafted, this legislation would have removed unnecessary government permission slips to exercise your Second Amendment rights. ​Unfortunately, the bill was amended in committee to include a mandatory training and education requirement; as a result, the bill was no longer constitutional carry.

The bill title was changed to “Freedom to Carry Act,” but with the legislation facing other concerns, it was taken off of the floor calendar, and failed to meet the crossover deadline to pass the House of Representatives.​

Your NRA-ILA will continue to make it our mission for North Carolina to become a constitutional carry state, and bury any attempts to compromise on the issue.

If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know where I stand on this. I also find it ironic that the NRA says they will not “compromise” given their history of doing just that. Whoever wrote the above ought to ask Wayne about his compromise on 1986’s Firearm Owners Protection Act which may just have helped enrich his BFF.

Liberty Doll has a different take on it. Her videos have just that right amount of sarcasm mixed with cute rockabilly chick libertarian.

With Liberty Doll’s 263,000 followers on YouTube, I would wager she is much more effective in getting her (and gun rights activists in North Carolina’s) side of the story out than the NRA-ILA.

The sad thing in all of this is that the NRA could have been involved from the start and the bill could have passed the NC House. That would have involved working with GRNC and GOA cooperatively and openly in a joint effort to get the bill passed. As it is, the NRA was largely absent. They have one ILA lobbyist, D. J. Spiker, who has to cover North and South Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia. I don’t know whether it is a matter of finances or just mere disinterest combined with negligence but you need more than one person to cover one-tenth of the population of the United States.

Uncategorized

NRA-ILA Picks Wrong Target

April 21, 2023 by 2 Comments

The NRA-ILA is now headed by what I consider their third string quarterback. First, Wayne and company forced Chris Cox out for supposed disloyalty. Then his replacement Jason Ouimet left when he saw the writing on the wall. Now Randy Kozuch, an almost 30-year veteran of the NRA, was appointed as Executive Director of ILA by the Board of Directors on Monday He had been the interim head prior to Monday.

Yesterday, the NRA-ILA posted a release that claimed credit for getting North Carolina’s pistol purchase permit repealed and blasting other 2A groups for taking credit for it.

However, some other 2A groups in the state have instead continued to focus on seeking credit for the legislative victory. At least one group has gone so far as to try claiming exclusive responsibility for the passage and veto override of SB41.

Not only do these laughable claims dismiss over a decade of legislative repeal efforts by NRA members, gun owners, and other 2A groups, but they also create an unnecessary distraction. This is a time when Second Amendment expansion opportunities in North Carolina are possible, including NRA’s push for constitutional carry. We would hope that all pro-gun groups share that same enthusiasm to collectively fight for pro-gun legislation in North Carolina. 

Now I don’t know if this was the work of Randy Kozuch as it reads more like something that Marion Hammer would put out. I do know that someone royally screwed up.

To paraphrase Jim Croce:

You don’t tug on superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don’t mess around with Paul Valone of GRNC

It is bad enough to take credit for another organization’s hard work. The NRA has done that time and again. However, it goes beyond the pale when you then dump on an all-volunteer, highly effective, state-level gun rights organization for having the temerity to claim credit for their actual accomplishments.

As anyone who knows Paul Valone would expect, he is not taking this lying down. He issued a point by point response last night.

Gun Rights Supporters:
The failing NRA, in a desperate bid for relevance, recently made a veiled accusation against GRNC, claiming “…some other 2A groups in the state have instead continued to focus on seeking credit for the legislative victory. At least one group has gone so far as to try claiming exclusive responsibility for the passage and veto override of SB41.” Below are NRA claims, followed by the truth.

Myth: The NRA claims GRNC was the first group to claim credit for Senate Bill 41.

Truth: GRNC was not the one who first claimed credit, it was Fred Edgecomb, a past president of the NRA-affiliated NC Rifle & Pistol Assoc., who was heard to claim credit at a recent IDPA match. We merely responded by setting the record straight.

Myth: The NRA-ILA alert claimed that GRNC “dismiss[ed] over a decade of legislative repeal efforts by NRA members, gun owners, and other 2A groups.”

Truth: The first purchase permit repeal was negotiated by GRNC, Sen. Buck Newton, and the Republican-led NC Senate in 2013 and was included as part of HB 937, an omnibus bill which contained, among other things, restaurant carry. Because the Senate considerably strengthened the weak bill first passed by the NC House, it had to return to the House for a concurrence vote. Unfortunately, NRA-endorsed Governor Pat McCrory threatened to veto the bill if it contained the purchase permit repeal, causing the repeal to be stripped out in conference committee.

Next, in 2021, GRNC worked with Rep. Jay Adams to alter his bill, HB 398, by substituting language for a full purchase permit repeal. We also worked closely with then-NC Sheriffs Association President Dave Mahoney to get NCSA to endorse the repeal and got the bill passed by both chambers before Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed it.

This year, GRNC worked closely with Sens. Danny Britt, Warren Daniel, and Jim Perry to ensure that the SB 41 not only cleared both chambers, but did so without contaminating amendments. For the override vote, we hammered thousands of robocalls and automated text messages into the districts of Democrats who had voted for the bill.

Meanwhile, bill sponsors and other legislators I have asked reported no contact from the NRA lobbyist, DJ Spiker. The NRA was so utterly out of the loop that, at one point, it issued an alert which wrongly described the contents of a gun bill that had been changed in a previous committee meeting. In fact, in videos GRNC made this year of committee hearings on gun bills, you will see only GRNC testifying to the committees, not NRA and not NCRPA.

Finally, GRNC worked for nearly two decades to insert into the public consciousness the phrase “our Jim Crow-era purchase permit law” – a strategy we worked out after reading about the origins of the law in Dave Kopel’s book, ”The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?”

Myth: That the NRA is “push[ing] for constitutional carry.”

Truth: North Carolina’s first permitless carry bill (then called “Vermont carry”) was introduced by Sen. Hugh Webster in 1997 as SB 810 at the behest of GRNC and GOA. We actually went as far as filing a discharge petition when Democrat Marc Basnight refused the bill a hearing. At around this time, we heard reports from gun rights groups in other states that NRA lobbyists were actively sabotaging permitless carry bills. This year, we are working closely with bill sponsor Rep. Keith Kidwell on HB 189, “NC Constitutional Carry Act.” We are unaware of any effort by the NRA on the bill. Frankly, it would be nice if the NRA did something on the bill, since the May 4 crossover deadline is fast approaching.

In closing, it’s bad enough that the NRA, consumed by its inner strife and reportedly declining membership, has been AWOL from the past two sessions of the General Assembly. Worse, however, is when the organization, facing legal challenges due to alleged corruption, siphons off resources from the group that is actually doing the heavy lifting.

Please help ensure that doesn’t happen by going to: grnc.org/join-grnc/contribute

With your help, all-volunteer Grass Roots North Carolina will continue its 29-year history of success.

Armatissimi e liberissimi,

 


F. Paul Valone
President, Grass Roots North Carolina
Executive Director, Rights Watch International
Radio host, Guns, Politics and Freedom
Author, Rules for ANTI-Radicals: A Practical Handbook for Defeating Leftism


Paul Valone is the honey badger of the gun rights community in North Carolina. While the NRA may still consider itself the 800 lb gorilla, “honey badger don’t care“.

Uncategorized

NRA Moves Of Note

March 16, 2023 by 7 Comments

Two interesting developments concerning the NRA crossed my desk today. One was expected in the sense that the position had to be filled and the other has me wondering.

First, Randy Kozuch has been appointed to be the Interim Director of the NRA-ILA. The position had to be filled with someone after Jason Ouimet left as the Director of the ILA. There are boards and foundations within the NRA that specify the Director of the ILA must be a member. If I remember correctly, Kozuch was a candidate for the position when Chris Cox resigned. He had served as ILA head of state and local affairs.

According to the press release, Kozuch has been with the NRA for 29 years and had “overseen state lobbying efforts in all 50 state legislatures and served as the primary point of contact between NRA and the nation’s governors and state constitutional officers.” I will leave that statement there as is and refrain from any comments on his effectiveness in North Carolina.

The second development is of far more interest. A “Dear Director” email went out today from former NRA President David Keene. Under the current bylaws (Article V, Sec. 1 (a)), the president of the NRA “may not succeed himself or herself more than once, after being elected to serve a full term.” There is an exception made in the bylaws for the late Charlton Heston who was allowed to succeed himself up to four times.

A resolution is being submitted by Carol Frampton and Joel Friedman that would waive this limitation for current NRA President Charles Cotton and allow him to serve a third one-year term as President. The email from Keene is below:

Dear Fellow NRA Director.

This morning’s mail brought a copy of the resolution submitted by Carol Frampton and Joel Friedman to extend NRA President Charles Cotton’s term for another year. We will be asked to vote on this resolution at the Indianapolis Board meeting and it is my hope that you will join me in supporting it.

As a former NRA President, I can tell you that during challenging times, I know of no one in that job who would want an additional year on the firing line, but sometimes sacrifices are necessary for the good of the association membership and the Second Amendment. As a competent and careful attorney, himself, Charles has been a steady helmsman during the legal battles in which we have been enmeshed during his term. These battles should wind down over the course of the next year and he should be there to serve our interests during this crucial period. He deserves our thanks not just for what he’s accomplished thus far but for his willingness to allow us to ask him to carry on for another year.

David A. Keene

I find this quite interesting. It engenders a lot of questions as to the reasons behind this move. I don’t have any answers to them. Cotton’s term as President would normally end in April at the next Board meeting. At that time, First VP Willes Lee would be the successor to Cotton as President and David Coy would move into Lee’s position. A new Second VP would be selected at that time.

One potential reason, and the most innocent, is that the terms of office were interrupted during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. The Annual Meeting happened later in the year which screwed things up a bit.

It could also be that Wayne and Brewer prefer to keep Cotton in the position while the New York proceedings are active. As Brewer plays Rasputin to Wayne’s Czar Nicholas II, this is believable. The shots are being called by Brewer and the Board does what they are told to do by Wayne.

Another alternative is that there is a faction who want to prevent Willes Lee from assuming the position of President of the NRA. His past actions as the leadership’s number two hatchet man (Marion Hammer holds the number one position) are coming back to bite him. I have referred to Lee as the Spiro Agnew of the NRA in the past. While that might be an insult to Agnew, Lee has served that role as Agnew did Nixon.

In the end, if this email is being sent out now, it is a fait accompli or done deal. The overwhelming majority of the Board does what it is told like obedient children. There are only a few members who have rocked the boat and they will be off the Board come the Annual Meeting. The sad thing is I have more faith in NY Assistant AG Monica Connell to represent the members of the NRA than I do in the Board.

UPDATE: Here is a copy of the actual resolution. It is a screen shot.

The resolution has been added to the agenda of the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee.

Uncategorized

Jason Ouimet Leaving NRA-ILA

February 21, 2023 by 4 Comments

Jason Ouimet, Director of the NRA-Institute for Legislative Affairs, is leaving to join Shumaker Advisors. Stephen Gutowski reported it in The Reload and shortly thereafter it was posted on Twitter.

Ouimet replaced long-time ILA Executive Director Chris Cox in 2019.

As to why Ouimet is leaving now just 6 to 7 weeks before the NRA Annual Meeting, nothing is being said publicly. If I hear anything, I’ll post it.

Shumaker Advisors is a division of the law firm Shumaker, Loop, and Kendrick. They have offices in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and DC. Interestingly, Ryan Walker, Shumaker’s Senior VP of Federal Affairs, is a fellow Kent State grad.

Uncategorized

Is Brewer Getting His Hooks Into NRA-ILA’s Budget?

March 17, 2022 by 4 Comments

When Chris Cox was forced out as the Executive Director of NRA-ILA, his Deputy Director and General Counsel David Lehman was out soon thereafter.

Jason Ouimet was appointed to take Cox’s position as head of NRA-ILA. As has been explained to me, he then started to search for a general counsel who would have his back and who would protect the NRA-ILA from Bill Brewer’s depredations. He went outside the Second Amendment world and hired Wade Callender who had served as a trial attorney, a Judge Advocate in the Navy, and for eight years as a general counsel in the software industry.

It appears Wade did his job too well. He protected the NRA-ILA from those outside forces such as Brewer whose goals and aims were inconsistent with the purpose of the organization. Unlike John Frazer at the NRA, he did his job as a good general counsel should therefore he was a threat.

Today a memo went out from Jason Ouimet saying that Wade will be leaving the position effective Labor Day. There was the typical mumbo-jumbo about Wade wanted to seek new opportunities and that he wanted to remain in Texas where he had been working during COVID. Ouimet did say that Wade “improved legal operations, saved millions and his counsel to me as Executive Director has been invaluable.” He is also being credited with shepherding the NYSRPA v. Bruen case through the Supreme Court.

This is bad news for the NRA-ILA. Bill Brewer has had his sights set on the ILA’s Second Amendment budget for a long time. It is another pot of money from which he can get legal fees. Wade stood in his way and now Ouimet has cracked open the door for Brewer.

Not only will the ILA not have a General Counsel who could and would stand up to Brewer but their long-time litigation counsel Chris Conte passed away in 2021. Conte was the one responsible for developing cases which then would work their way up to the appellate level.

As should be self-evident by now, Brewer and his firm are not qualified to handle Second Amendment cases. The few minor 2A cases in which he has been involved have either been dropped or dismissed. To make matters worse, qualified Second Amendment lawyers like Charles Cooper of Cooper & Kirk were purged for “disloyalty” in 2019. I have even heard rumors that Brewer thought he should have been the one to bring the NYSRPA case to the Supreme Court and not Paul Clement. Even the thought of that makes me cringe.

I’m sure we will hear more on this in the coming days as the Annual Meeting approaches at the end of May. When we do, I’ll be reporting it.

Uncategorized

Misplaced Priorities

May 18, 2021 by 2 Comments

The NRA-ILA posted yesterday that they plan to spend at least $2 million on fighting gun control. The post also dealt with Legislative Town Halls. This is all well and good.

That is until you think how much was spent elsewhere.

For example, the NRA has spent $8 million in legal fees to avoid paying former ILA Director Chris Cox the $2 million severance his contract called for.

This is on top of the approximately $10 million in legal fees spent on their abortive attempt at bankruptcy.

Now it might just be me but I’d sure as hell rather have seen $18 million spent on fighting gun control and protecting the Second Amendment than on legal shenanigans. Imagine if just a fraction of the money spent on Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, had been spent in the Georgia run-off election. Instead of a 50-50 Senate with the Democrats running things, Cocaine Mitch would still be running things and would have served as a bulwark against the anti-rights, anti-gun moves of the Biden Administration.

As I said in the headline, misplaced priorities.

Uncategorized

Perhaps The Locals Do Know Best

February 24, 2020 by 2 Comments

We often complain about national groups coming in and telling the locals how they should be doing it. This is usually in the context of a group like Mike Bloomberg’s Everytown, Moms Demand Action, or Giffords. However, sometimes it is our own side in the battle for gun rights that is doing this.

Such is the case in Alabama where the NRA is supporting a move to consolidate the list of pistol permit holders, that state’s nomenclature for a concealed carry permit, into a statewide database. The bills in question are HB39 and SB47. The bills provide for the permits to be standardized and issued statewide. They also provide for a lifetime carry permit.

This move is getting a mixed reaction as reported by CBS 42.

Bama Carry and the Alabama Gun Rights Network don’t always agree on the best strategies for advancing gun rights in the Heart of Dixie.

However, when I reached out to friends who are affiliated with those organizations, the response I got was virtually identical. They are opposed to the bills in their current form as they create a database of gun owners which has the potential to be abused.

My friend Beth Alcazar, the Alabama representative of the DC Project and a board member of Bama Carry, had this to say to me in a Facebook message. I’m quoting her with her permission.

At the heart of this matter (and why we are hesitant to get on board) is the fact that law abiding gun owners will be on a registry, with all information being shared, statewide, and this info. could end up on a driver license. This, of course, could cause problems traveling across state lines. What if someone is stopped or pulled over and now questioned or harassed (or searched) because of this identification? And what happens if a government body must be created to oversee this database? Currently, our permit info. is only in the hands of our sheriffs. A lifetime permit could open that up… from just local to state.

Additionally, the NRA doesn’t appear to be listening to Alabamians or to our state’s largest gun rights group, and they continue to push legislation that has potential problems or unintended consequences.

And therein lies the problem. When it is a matter of state and local politics, local activists should be listened to. That there seems to be a disconnect between local gun right rights groups and the NRA on an issue of local concern is not good. The NRA should either defer to the local groups or work to find a compromise that satisfies all gun rights groups involved.

We in North Carolina had much the same problem in 2011 concerning gun bans outside the home during periods of declared emergencies. Grass Roots North Carolina along with local plaintiffs and the Second Amendment Foundation brought Bateman v. Perdue. The NRA-ILA representative in North Carolina was pushing for a quick legislative fix that would have mooted the case. The problem with a quick legislative fix was that it could have been changed on the whim of the next General Assembly. GRNC, SAF, and local activists had to push legislators to let the court case run its path. In the end the General Assembly did that and we won a decision in Bateman declaring the gun ban unconstitutional.

I wrote back then (June 2011) that “there are some in the NRA’s hierarchy who believe the NRA has to be the be-all and end-all of all things Second Amendment.” I noted that the NRA does some things really well and others not so well. I said the NRA should concentrate on training, the legislative arena, and other areas where a mass organization can do well. I didn’t think they were nearly as good at Second Amendment litigation as SAF.

I would now modify my statement from 2011 to say that the NRA does lobbying at the national level well and should work closer with state and local groups on state level lobbying if they want to be effective. Moreover, by state and local groups I don’t mean it has to be the NRA state affiliate as the experience of non-affiliates VCDL and GRNC has shown. Whether the NRA and their state ILA representatives are wise enough to recognize this is still open to debate.

Uncategorized

Marion Has A Worthy Adversary

September 3, 2019 by 5 Comments

Marion Hammer, current NRA Board member and former President, has (or has had) a reputation for cowing legislators in Florida. She also expects subservience from those around her including NRA staffers. I think she may have met her match.

In a recent NRA-ILA alert for Florida by Ms. Hammer, she made a direct attack David Dell’Aguila who wants reform in the NRA.

Are David Dell’Aquila’s gun rights worth $100,000?  Worth more than $100 million?  Worth whatever it takes to defeat the anti-gun agitators and enemies of the Second Amendment? You’re damned right!  Whether he donates money to NRA to fund the fight or not – NRA is fighting for his rights and yours. 

This was in response to criticism of the $100,000 lost in fees and cancellation expenses to move the NRA Board meeting from Anchorage, AK back to the DC area.

Ms. Hammer is using Mr. Dell’Aquila as a foil for her fundraising appeal. Her letter includes 3 embedded donation links and another at the bottom.

She concludes:

It’s time to stop the lies, stop the attacks, stop manufacturing fake documents, stop cutting off your nose to spite your face.  It’s time to focus on stopping the anti-gun, anti-freedom, hate-mongering enemies of our rights. 

Hey, David Dell’Aquila! you may have abandoned the only organization capable of protecting your rights — shame on you — but nonetheless, we’ve got your back.  We’re donating to the fight!

I’m of the opinion such a letter would never have gone out if Chris Cox and other NRA-ILA leadership were still there. It is too personal, too petty, and too spiteful. Indeed, it was counterproductive.

Ms. Hammer finds a worthy opponent in Mr. Dell’Aquila. Indeed, a worthy opponent that is not cowed by her reputation. He has responded with an open letter today which is embedded at the bottom of the page.

Here are a few quotes from it.

First, thank you for so prominently repeating my name in your recent fundraising appeal. I can’t tell you how many people have reached out to me, who didn’t know anything about the concerns of improper spending at the NRA that the grassroots organization has raised, or about my lawsuit and campaign to withhold donations until the NRA gets its house in order. So far donors are withholding over $162 million from the NRA until the organization adopts new management and more transparent accountability.

Had it not been for your fundraising letter about the value of my Second Amendment gun rights, these people might never have discovered the nearly 100 news articles (linked here and here) detailing the allegations of improper spending by NRA executives and the failure of the NRA Board of Directors to provide oversight and fiduciary prudence to address the situation.

Ouch!

Now he goes for the jugular.

The available records are not particularly clear. However, it is clear that NRA members have paid you something in excess of $2 million dollars. In 2018 alone, a year when NRA finances were reported to be exceptionally low, records show that you were paid $270,000. Would these payments have something to do with your current vigorous defense of Wayne LaPierre, and his open-purse spending practices at the NRA? This would appear to be a conflict of interest, regarding any Board vote concerning Mr. LaPierre’s continued stewardship of the organization.

In addition, according to Article V, Section 5 of the NRA’s bylaws, no director — such as yourself — is entitled to receive “any private benefit” from NRA unless payment is specifically authorized by a resolution of the Board of Directors or an authorized committee of the Board. I would be very curious to see whether the NRA’s board has approved these payments to you. If so, perhaps you could forward a copy of the written resolutions.

Mr. Dell’Aquila concludes by noting that Ms. Hammer has done good work over the years. He also notes that so have others on the Board and with state-level groups. The difference is that the others received no direct compensation from the NRA for their efforts.

I imagine this letter will make Ms. Hammer spitting mad. That is, if she ever reads it. Nonetheless, I’m sure fundraisers in Fairfax will read it and say, “Please God, no more alerts from Marion!”

Hammer-2019-09-03 by jpr9954 on Scribd

Uncategorized

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.