2023 NRA Meeting Of Members – Resolution 3 (Updated)

The third resolution presented at the 2023 NRA Meeting of Members generated the most comment. It was a resolution from Jeff Knox that expressed no confidence in Wayne LaPierre as the Executive Vice President.

After NRA Secretary John Frazer read the resolution, Charles Cotton asked for those for and against it to speak. Those speaking in favor of it were Jeff Knox, Rob Pincus, John Carr, and Michael Mc (missed the rest of his name.)

When it came to speaking against it, the Friends of Wayne on the Board fought one another to express their confidence in Wayne as well as to attack Jeff either directly or through innuendo. These included Tom King, Mark Robinson, David Keene, Joel Friendman, and Jay Printz. There were two others that spoke against it but one of those was a comedian similar to Jason Selvig in 2022.

Here is Jeff’s resolution which failed again in 1/3 aye, 2/3 nay vote.

Resolution of No Confidence in Wayne LaPierre

Submitted by Jeff Knox, Endowment Life Member, Arizona

April 15, 2023

Whereas the NRA has seen a dramatic decline in Annual Members over the past 4 years, with sources indicating a drop of close to 30%, and

Whereas the NRA has experienced a significant declines in revenue over the past 4 years, with sources indicating declines of almost 50%, and

Whereas, between the years 2015 and 2018, the unrestricted net assets of the NRA declined by over 60 million dollars, and

Whereas 2018 saw financial belt-tightening, and the total collapse of the NRA’s heavily promoted, and very expensive Carry Guard program, which had only been introduced a few years earlier, and

Whereas, the advent of the SARS COV 2 pandemic caused layoffs of some 400 NRA employees, along with announced reductions in executive and managerial pay of 20%, and

Whereas, during this time of austerity measures, layoffs, significant financial losses, and growing legal expenses, in 2018, Wayne LaPierre, as Executive Vice President and CEO of the NRA, received a significant pay increase and a four hundred and fifty five thousand dollar “bonus,” bringing his total compensation that year to more than 2.2 million dollars, up from the 1.4 million he received in 2017, and for 2019 and 2020, while the layoffs and pay cuts were being implemented, Mr. LaPierre received compensation of approximately 1.7 million dollars each year, and

Whereas, along with this generous compensation, Mr. LaPierre received numerous other perks, including chartered, corporate jet travel at an average cost of seven thousand dollars per hour, limousine service, luxury accommodations, and a substantial expense and entertainment account, all totaling well over an additional million dollars per year, and

Whereas the National Rifle Association’s positions and objectives are supposed to be based on certain unwavering principles, beginning with the fact that the right to arms is an unalienable, fundamental, individual right, bestowed by our creator, and enshrined in the Constitution, and that restrictions on inanimate objects can never control the behavior of persons with evil and criminal intent, and

Whereas Mr. LaPierre, in his capacity as Executive Vice President of the NRA, publicly declared in 1999 that the National Rifle Association believes in “absolutely gun free, zero tolerance, totally safe schools.  That means no guns in America’s schools, period, with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel,” and

Whereas, at other times, while serving as Executive Vice President of the NRA, Mr. LaPierre has declared the NRA’s support for the creation of an “Instant Background-Check System,” declared the NRA’s support for laws requiring background checks for all firearm sales at gun shows, declared NRA support for so-called “red flag” laws, which provide for the confiscation of firearms from people accused of being a threat to themselves or others, with only bare consideration of due process, and declared that “the NRA believes that… (bump-stocks) …should be more tightly regulated,” and

Whereas President Trump subsequently acted on that last statement of support from the NRA, resulting in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives declaring bump-stock devices to be “machine guns,” effectively banning them under the Hughes Amendment, and

Whereas, while serving as chief lobbyist for the NRA, when the Hughes Amendment was attached to the Firearm Owners Protection Act as a “poison pill,” Mr. LaPierre asked the Republican Senate to agree to the amendment in order to pass the law, and asked President Reagan to sign the law, and subsequently stated that repeal of the Hughes Amendment would be the NRA’s number one priority going forward, but has never taken any substantive action toward repealing this travesty of a law, and

Whereas Mr. LaPierre has testified in court and on tax documents that he improperly charged personal and other unauthorized travel on multiple flights on chartered jets, and other unauthorized expenses to his NRA account, and

Whereas the various disclosures, revelations, and numerous substantiated accusations that have come out about Mr. LaPierre in recent years, along with his lack of principled stands on critical rights issues, have damaged the reputation of the National Rifle Association and its members, and have destroyed Mr. LaPierre’s personal credibility, severely limiting his abilities as a fund raiser or a political influencer on behalf of the NRA and its members, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the members here gathered for the 152nd Meeting of Members of the National Rifle Association, here gathered in Indianapolis, Indiana on this 15th day of April, 2023, do hereby declare that we have No Confidence in the ability of Wayne LaPierre to lead this organization going forward, and while we appreciate his contributions to the fight for rights over the past 40 years, we call on him to resign his position as Executive Vice President and to not seek reelection to that, or any other leadership position in the NRA at any time in the future, and, be it further

Resolved, That we call on the NRA Board of Directors to recognize the will of the members and ensure that Mr. LaPierre is not reelected to the office of Executive Vice President, or elected or appointed to any other office of importance within the National Rifle Association or its affiliated organizations, nor be awarded any contract or employment by any NRA-related entity, and, be it further

 Resolved, That the Secretary is instructed to cause a full, legible copy of this Resolution to be printed in the Official Journal of the Association within 120 days of the close of this meeting.

UPDATE: I did record Jeff Knox and Rob Pincus speaking in favor of this resolution. Their videos are below. In the one with Rob, you will seek Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC) giving a loud defense of Wayne. While I like Mark, I find it incredibly sad that he had “drunk the Kool-Aid”.

My NRA Succession Planning Resolution Was Shot Down

Perhaps I was naive but I thought with the COVID-19 pandemic that my resolution asking for a formal succession plan for NRA leadership would pass. It didn’t.

Having a formal succession plan is a key to a healthy organization. This is critical for both for-profit and non-profit organization. The current NRA “succession plan” is a bylaw that states the Executive Director of General Operations will act as the Executive VP in a temporary capacity if the EVP is removed or incapacitated. This person will only serve until the next Board of Directors meeting. That’s it.

My proposal was, as follows:

Resolution submitted to the Annual Meeting of the National Rifle Association, 24 October 2020, by John P. Richardson of Arden, North Carolina, Endowment Life Member No. xxxxx

WHEREAS, the National Rifle Association exists for the benefit of its members and has a long, illustrious history as the nation’s premier provider of firearms safety, training, and competition, as well as our country’s oldest and most effective civil rights organization; and

WHEREAS, strong, effective, and consistent leadership is required for the organizational health and efficacy of the National Rifle Association; and the COVID-19 pandemic has caused great disruption to the normal activities of the National Rifle Association; and

WHEREAS, National Rifle Association President Carolyn Meadows has called COVID-19 “a wakeup-call to the importance of the NRA”; and the most vulnerable age cohort to COVID-19 are those over the age of 65 and is the age group with the highest mortality; and

WHEREAS, the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Rifle Association Wayne LaPierre is over the age of 65; and the premature death or disability of Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre would create an executive management and leadership vacuum greatly disrupting the effectiveness of the National Rifle Association in promoting our civil rights; and

WHEREAS, succession planning is a critical component of all effective organizations; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that, on this 24th day of October, 2020, the members of the National Rifle Association of America here gathered at the Annual Meeting of Members in Tucson, Arizona do hereby request the NRA Board of Directors to create a formal succession plan for the Chief Executive Officer and for the Executive Directors; and

RESOLVED, that we, the members here gathered, further request the NRA Board of Directors to have a draft of this formal succession plan ready for presentation and comment at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board in 2021; and

RESOLVED, that we, the members here gathered, further request the NRA Board of Directors to present this formal succession plan to the Meeting of Members in Houston, Texas on the 15th of May, 2021.

Because I thought the matter was important, I even couched in it terms of “what happens if we lose the irreplaceable Wayne!” Of course, that was BS.

After I rose to speak for the resolution and even used Charles Cotton’s mention of “best practices”, I was followed to the podium by three Board of Director members to speak against it. They were Don Saba, Joel Friedman, and Kayne Robinson. Their arguments were it wasn’t needed, that filling the position wasn’t the same as with a corporation, and that the Director of General Operations works closely with Wayne. They, of course, missed the whole point.

Frank Tait did rise to speak in favor of it which was much appreciated.

Resolutions at this Meeting of Members were pretty much doomed to failure in their original form. They best they could hope for was a referral to committee. A reasonable guesstimate of the number of voting members attending the meeting was in the 150-200 maximum range. That included 50 Board members, a number of their spouses, a number of older members from the area, and just a handful of us who want to see the NRA become a healthier organization. I really felt like I was one of the younger members in attendance and I’m 63!

I realize that change takes time and I need to play the long game. It is still frustrating but it is what it is. Just another great thing brought to you by 2020.

Only In San Francisco

Only in San Francisco do you have widespread defecation on the streets.

Only in San Francisco do you have a five-time deported illegal alien found innocent of murder.

Only in San Francisco are convicted felons now called “justice-involved persons.”

Only in San Francisco do you have an organization dedicated to the advancement of an enumerated civil right declared a “domestic terrorist organization.”

Say what? The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution yesterday that brands the National Rifle Association a “domestic terrorist organization”.

The resolution was sponsored by Supervisor Catherine Stefani (D-SF). She is an attorney, former prosecutor, and, according to her official bio, a “leader and spokesperson for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.” Gee, no conflict of interest there, is there?

Catherine Stefani, Official SFBOS Picture

Reading the resolution is like reading some bizarre alternate reality short story. It claims that the NRA “incites gun owners to acts of violence” among other things. It goes on to claim that the NRA, by being advocates for gun rights, have armed those who have committed acts of terrorism.

You can read the whole thing at this link. Try not to gag when reading it.