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"it's time for hunters to leave the NRA"


Gil Bang

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On 9/9/2019 at 4:11 PM, atomheartbevo said:

You're talking about a guy obsessed with bathrooms.

He could have easily seen internal polling showing that a large group, perhaps soccer moms, suburban Republicans, whatever, are pissed about all of the mass shootings, and he's trying to get ahead of them, because that's the kind of person he is - he has reinvented himself multiple times, even changed his legal name, to fit his target audience.

I'll believe something non-political (like Santa Fe) actually changed him, when he comes out to talk about it.

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2 hours ago, EMAWesome said:

https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1172149520123252736?s=19

Tim PoolVerified account

@Timcast

The centralization of financial infrastructure allowing for government actors to restrict constitutional rights This is some fucking evil shit right here. Can't fix the law? Call on Private Monopoly power to restrict rights

I agree with him here, but I disagree with him wearing that stupid fucking hat even in the summer. Just be bald, dude. Your discomfort with your appearance makes everyone really uncomfortable. 

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https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1172149520123252736?s=19

Tim PoolVerified account

@Timcast

The centralization of financial infrastructure allowing for government actors to restrict constitutional rights This is some fucking evil shit right here. Can't fix the law? Call on Private Monopoly power to restrict rights

Yeah....everyone knows that private businesses should stick to imprisoning brown children for profit.
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Some NRA news. Gee, that bit I quoted from the article sure sounds familiar. The AAG is smart to realize that the NRA and the GOP House reps use the same playbook.

Quote

Articulating the state’s main argument Thursday, Assistant Attorney General John Oleske said the target of an investigation should not learn what the investigators are about to learn before those investigators learn it. 

Article here:

https://www.courthousenews.com/nra-pushes-broad-privilege-claims-against-state-subpoena/

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I think clips from this have been posted here before but these are the full piece.

If you have a couple of hours they’re worth the watch. But get ready to be frustrated at best and outraged at worst.

These dudes spent three years undercover as gun rights activists in Australia. They created a group - Gun Rights Australia - as a front, complete with a social media presence and all the bells and whistles.





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https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nra-chief-wayne-lapierre-received-a-57-percent-pay-raise-in-2018-tax-filings-show/2019/11/15/dba9ef54-07cf-11ea-b388-434b5c1d7dd8_story.html

 

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National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre, who pushed past scattered calls for his resignation earlier this year amid allegations of misspending, received a 57 percent pay raise in 2018 that boosted his overall compensation to $2.15 million, according to the nonprofit group’s latest tax filings.

LaPierre received a base salary of $1.3 million, plus a bonus of $455,000 and “other reportable compensation” of more than $427,000, the filings show. LaPierre also received an additional $73,793 in “retirement and other deferred compensation” and “nontaxable benefits” from the NRA and related entities, according to the filings, which the NRA provided to The Washington Post on Friday.

 

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LaPierre’s pay increase comes at a time when the gun group has been under pressure to explain large payments to top executives, even as it has cut spending on firearms training and political activities and frozen pension benefits for employees.

Revelations that LaPierre spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury menswear and travel, and that the NRA considered buying him a multimillion-dollar estate, has led to months of internal warfare. NRA officials have staunchly defended their stewardship of NRA funds as the Democratic attorneys general of Washington and New York investigate the tax-exempt group’s spending.

 

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“Wayne LaPierre’s compensation reflects his enormous contributions to our members and the freedoms for which they fight,” NRA President Carolyn Meadows said in a statement. “His contributions to the NRA have been transformative.”

Oliver North, who was ousted as NRA president in April after accusing LaPierre of overspending on legal fees, received $1.38 million from the group’s former public relations agency, Ackerman McQueen, according to the tax filings. That payment is just one part of a sprawling and bitter legal battle between the NRA and Ackerman McQueen, which was paid $38.3 million in 2018, more than any other independent contractor.

 

Spoiler

The NRA also reported paying $13.8 million in 2018 to the law firm of William Brewer III, who has become one of LaPierre’s most trusted advisers. North had claimed that Brewer had received millions more over a longer period that ended in April 2019, when the NRA broke with North and Ackerman McQueen.

NRA officials said in a statement that Brewer’s firm represents the organization on a variety of matters and that the relationship has been carefully reviewed.

North’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, LaPierre and his wife, Susan, were interested in a 10,000-square-foot estate with lakefront and golf course views in Westlake, Tex., on the market for about $6 million, according to emails and text messages previously described to The Post. According to the tax filings, a company called WBB Investments was “formed in connection with a possible transaction that was never ultimately executed.”

The company was linked to the aborted real estate deal, according to two people with knowledge of the proposed transaction who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it.

The Post has reported that 18 members of the unpaid, 76-member NRA board have collected money from the group during the past three years, according to tax filings, state charitable reports and NRA correspondence reviewed by The Post. The new tax filing shows that the NRA paid another former board member, actor Tom Selleck, $476,000 last year for “collectible firearms.” Selleck’s attorney told the Wall Street Journal, which reported the payment several days ago, that the arrangement was approved by the board and that the actor made little or no profit from it.

Crow Shooting Supply, a firearms business controlled by past NRA president Pete Brownell, received $3.2 million from the NRA Foundation, the group’s charitable arm. NRA officials and Brownell have said the group began purchasing supplies from Crow before Brownell took over the company in 2011. Brownell is among more than a half-dozen NRA board members who have stepped down since May. He did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The NRA ended the year with a $2.7 million shortfall in 2018, compared with a $17.8 million shortfall the previous year and an even bigger hole of $45.8 million in 2016.

“The NRA’s financials are strong and trending in the right direction,” said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman.

Spending by the political arm of the NRA dropped from $47.1 million in 2014 to $32.51 million in 2018, the filings show. That was the midterm election in which Democrats took over the House and gun control groups outspent the gun lobby for the first time.

 

Edited by Francisco 2.0
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On 11/15/2019 at 8:30 PM, tx 3 putt said:

They have no business being a non profit 

No, this is exactly how this should go down.

Rather than pass some stupid law that makes it harder for ALL non profits to qualify, if you see a non-profit and you don't like the way it spends its money, you TALK ABOUT IT.

The First Amendment has a rights component, it also implicitly has a duty component.

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55 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I don't think the NRA should be handing out ammo like candy right outside a state legislature, but that's just me. They can encourage their members to speak up, vote, what have you...

 

You just gave everyone a perfect example of why you have no business opining about how we should change our gun control laws.

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16 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

VA is quickly turning into a gun rights battle ground. Also, the nra is very late here, per many comments 

Wonder if the NRA is scared that if VA goes the other way, other states will follow, because they sure as hell seem desperate.

Maybe they should have saved some of that money they spent on executive perks for this stuff.

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7 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Wonder if the NRA is scared that if VA goes the other way, other states will follow, because they sure as hell seem desperate.

Maybe they should have saved some of that money they spent on executive perks for this stuff.

And maybe they should have considered the ramifications of getting wrapped up with Maria Butina and Russia. I am skeptical that they didn't know what they were doing.

I am cool with 2A. It is right. You can have guns, you can collect guns, you can carry your guns. But the NRA I have some concerns with. Maybe I shouldn't be 'opining' on guns, but I see problems with the way they conduct themselves in and around our political institutions and with elected representatives. It's a shame they didn't stick with hunter education, safe handling of firearms, etc. in other words: education. I think that is a worthy cause.

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The NRA spent tens of thousands of dollars bringing hair and makeup artists around the country for the wife of its CEO, two sources told The Daily Beast. The expenses–which included plane flights and luxury hotel stays for the stylists–are bound to fuel an already-raging debate over what some see as a spendthrift culture in the NRA’s upper echelons. The NRA, meanwhile, called it a “non-story,” and said their ex-ad firm was responsible for any such expenses. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nra-spent-tens-of-thousands-on-hair-and-makeup-for-ceo-wayne-lapierres-wife-susan

 

 

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Thoughts and prayers.

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/839999178/secret-recording-reveals-nras-legal-troubles-have-cost-the-organization-100-mill

 

Quote

The National Rifle Association's legal troubles have cost the powerful gun rights group $100 million, according to a recording of the group's board meeting obtained by NPR.

In the January 2020 recording, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre criticizes ongoing investigations by the New York and Washington, D.C., attorneys general, bemoaning "the power of weaponized government." And he told the NRA's board of directors, assembled for the group's winter meeting in January, that the organization has had to make $80 million in cuts to stay afloat.

 

Quote

The NRA's internal turmoil burst into the open at the April 2019 annual members' meeting, when then-President Oliver North stepped down from the organization in protest after allegations of self-dealing and poor management of NRA funds were revealed in media reports.

These reports included mentions of LaPierre's lavish six-figure spending on clothing and travel. An attempt to oust LaPierre failed at that same meeting.

Subsequently, the New York and D.C. attorneys general launched investigations into the NRA's finances. Eight board members have resigned over the last year. And the NRA has been locked into protracted and costly legal battles with its longtime public relations firm.

 

Quote

LaPierre, who is the CEO and executive vice president of the gun rights group, said the scandals that have consumed his organization since 2018 have cost the group dearly.

"The cost that we bore was probably about a hundred-million-dollar hit in lost revenue and real cost to this association in 2018 and 2019," LaPierre said, according to a tape recorded by a source in the room. "I mean, that's huge."

 

Spoiler

These figures, not previously reported, are the first time that LaPierre has put a figure to how much the ongoing legal battles have cost the organization. For context, the NRA and its affiliates raised more than $412 million and spent more than $423 million in 2018, the last year for which there is public reporting,

To weather the storm, LaPierre said that he had dramatically reduced the size of the organization's budget.

"What we did in order to survive and adjust is we took in 2019 and 2020 ... about $80 million in real costs out of the NRA budget," LaPierre said. "I mean, we kinda reframed this entire association. We took it down to the studs."

Although the NRA has maintained its membership level — LaPierre claims it at "right around 5 million" — he said that there was still much to do: "We're not out of the woods yet. We still gotta wrestle with this financial situation."

LaPierre also lashed out at the attorneys general of New York and D.C. LaPierre compared their investigations to oppression from autocratic regimes, calling the probes "the power of weaponized government."

"I've never seen anything like that in the United States of America, to tell you the truth. I mean, that is Cuba, that is communist China, that is Venezuela, it's Russia, it's every other country we look at and we say, 'Thank God we don't live there,' " LaPierre said.

The offices of the D.C. and New York attorneys general declined to comment.

LaPierre made these comments on Jan. 11 of this year during an NRA board meeting in Virginia. While board members made up most of the members in attendance, there were also NRA staff in the room, as well as a few dozen NRA members.

One of those present was Ron Carter, the vice president of Save the Second. His organization consists of NRA members who are urging financial reform and accountability within the National Rifle Association.

"The repeated statement from LaPierre about the $100 million cost to the NRA should have come with an apology for having manifested the situation," Carter told NPR. "The lack of accountability is troubling for many members."

Save the Second is not associated with the recording obtained by NPR. The National Rifle Association did not return a request for comment.

The NRA announced layoffs and pay cuts in late March, blaming the coronavirus crisis for these measures. The coronavirus crisis prompted the cancellation of the group's annual convention, which had been scheduled to take place this past weekend.

While the coronavirus crisis has undoubtedly affected the organization's finances, the tape of LaPierre from January indicates that many of the organization's financial cuts were underway well before the emergence of the public health crisis.

And legal costs remain a heavy burden on the organization: In the ongoing litigation between the NRA and Ackerman McQueen, its former public relations firm, a brief filed by the firm on April 15 indicates its belief that the NRA has paid its outside legal counsel "over $54 million" in the last two years.

 

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2 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

They left out the question "Should the NRA direct critical resources to fund Wayne Lapierre and his wife's lavish lifestyle?"

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24 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

Straight up bad management is apparently the answer.  

yea, lets take all these great designs that have been the bread & butter of American outdoorsmen for generations, dump them, and start making cheap package guns to sell at Wal Mart and Academy. 

 

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51 minutes ago, Matuka said:

They are going bankrupt again because they don’t make an 1100 or 870 like they used to.

 

23 minutes ago, kevwun said:

They also produced one of the all time great bolt action rifles and still managed to fuck it up.

These.  1100, 870, and 700 were great firearms.  WERE.  Instead of focusing on manufacturing and marketing well made sporting arms, they went chasing the quick and ephemeral money of making cool black rifles and shit.  It's fucking dumb.  And I say that as someone who owns two 870 Wingmasters, and loves them.

Our gun culture is really messed up.  Had to hit Academy this weekend for some fishing gear, and jaw dropped at the ammo aisle....it was all but cleaned out, completely.  The gun and ammo panic that seems to happen with regularity makes no sense to me.  Do you think you're going to hold out in a siege for 3 months, so you need 300,000 rounds?  WTF?

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1 hour ago, Matuka said:

They are going bankrupt again because they don’t make an 1100 or 870 like they used to.

This. And I would add the Nylon 66, still the best gun I've ever owned or ever will. 

6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 

These.  1100, 870, and 700 were great firearms.  WERE.  Instead of focusing on manufacturing and marketing well made sporting arms, they went chasing the quick and ephemeral money of making cool black rifles and shit.  It's fucking dumb.  And I say that as someone who owns two 870 Wingmasters, and loves them.

Our gun culture is really messed up.  Had to hit Academy this weekend for some fishing gear, and jaw dropped at the ammo aisle....it was all but cleaned out, completely.  The gun and ammo panic that seems to happen with regularity makes no sense to me.  Do you think you're going to hold out in a siege for 3 months, so you need 300,000 rounds?  WTF?

So true - granted it was the day before they get their shipment, but I was in my local academy last week and the ONLY rifle ammo on the shelf was.17HMR

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My first 870 cost about $275, if I remember right.  Got it with money saved up in high school working at a gas station.  I think I put a couple thousand rounds through that thing over about 15 years.  Barbecue + too much booze makes some seriously corrosive sweat the next day, particularly during those hot September days at the start of dove season - the stock and pump looked like someone had poured acid on them.  Looked like shit at the end but still worked perfectly.  Gave it to a younger cousin.

So they seriously stopped making it?  That's like if Chick Fil A stopped selling chicken nuggets.

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