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When someone runs on a platform of “getting rid of the NRA,” believe them.
When Letitia James ran for New York attorney general back in 2018, she promised that she was going to take on the NRA.
Strong gun laws in NY haven’t been enough to stop the gun violence that rips communities of color apart every day. Today, I’m announcing my plans as Attorney General to stop gun violence & take on the NRA, gun manufacturers, retailers & banks that fund these weapons of death pic.twitter.com/xQXPzbsg8m
— Tish James (@TishJames) July 12, 2018
We are seeking to dissolve the NRA for years of self-dealing and illegal conduct that violate New York’s charities laws and undermine its own mission.
The NRA diverted millions of dollars away from its charitable mission for personal use by senior leadership.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) August 6, 2020
The rationale that AG James is using falls under “consumer protection,” and the fact that the NRA is chartered within New York state.
The lawsuit, James claims, is a consumer interest move designed to protect NRA members and donors.”
“We are seeking to dissolve the NRA for years of self-dealing and illegal conduct that violate New York’s charities laws and undermine its own mission. The NRA diverted millions of dollars away from its charitable mission for personal use by senior leadership,” she wrote. “Our lawsuit charges the NRA as a whole and four senior leaders, including Wayne LaPierre, with failing to manage the NRA’s funds and failing to follow numerous state and federal laws. These actions contributed to the loss of more than $64 million in just three years for the NRA.”
James claims that LaPierre and others used donations meant to go towards preserving the Second Amendment on private travel and meals, and alleges that LaPierre and at least three others breached their fiduciary duty to organization members, diverting “tens of millions of dollars” from the organization’s mission.”
Now, does Letitia James really care about protecting the NRA donors? Not in the least. Does the NRA have internal problems that have yet to be fully resolved? It’s likely. But is the New York Attorney General looking to bankrupt the NRA and make sure that they don’t have the cash on hand to give to political candidates? It’s a mystery, Charlie Brown.
In the meantime, James has to know that she is playing with a double-edged sword. The NRA, for better or worse, is the organizational “face” of those who are defending the Second Amendment. Now, whether they have done a GOOD job of that is clearly up for debate. They are not a perfect organization by any means, but they are the one most targeted by the anti-gun crowd. They have become the anti-gun crowd’s “boogeyman” – if they could JUST get rid of the NRA, THEN they could pass all the gun control bills they could ever want!
This completely discounts the fact that the NRA isn’t the only game in town, and that amidst the radical left’s cries to “defund the police,” gun sales have skyrocketed as people realize that if these crazy people get their way, there will be no one left to defend them (not to mention the pandemic). Gun control, for all intents and purposes, is dead the second that the police are gone. And way to make gun control a hot topic in the middle of a presidential election, when people are seriously concerned about protecting themselves, their loved ones, and their property from the raging mobs that Democrat-run cities don’t seem to want to control.
Not to mention the very double-edged precedent that AG James might be setting.
lol ok Republican AGs you are up and Planned Parenthood is waiting https://t.co/CiS19v1B49
— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) August 6, 2020
Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander, and all that. If this is the way the game is now to be played, what is stopping Planned Parenthood from being similarly sued and financially drained by a state attorney general?
The NRA has announced that they are ready for the legal fight. I certainly hope that they do have their house in order. But gun rights and the defense of the Second Amendement does not rise and fall with the NRA. The defense of those rights belongs to the people, and draining the NRA of money won’t bring about the gun-free utopia that the left wants – not when they are pushing a police-free utopia down people’s throats and the same time and watching crime rates rise. The NRA might be in legal trouble, but the American people are arming themselves.
Featured image via Don O’Brien on Flickr, CC BY 2.0, cropped
Tish James @TishJames
“Strong gun laws in NY haven’t been enough to stop the gun violence that rips communities of color apart every day.”
Sounds to me like she is admitting guns are not the problem but the black communities. She is not complaining that in other communities there is a problem with gun violence ripping the communities apart.
I live in a state where there is universal CC and there is no more gun violence than any other kind of violence. People who don’t have guns are very imaginative in the ways they kill people and more people, particularly women, are beaten to death or stabbed or combo of beating & stabbing than are killed with guns. Lost my link for that but it comes from the CDC
Brian Brandt says: I’m still a member, but I have to admit – Wayne LaPierre and the other execs brought this on themselves.
I’m a member because I think it’s important to support an organization that defends 2A. Like it or not, the NRA is the big dog in the fight compared to the other groups.
The NRA is made up of a lot of different kinds of people so there will never be 100% agreement on anything.
I don’t follow too closely the internal squabbling so I am not very familiar with those issues.
She has zero chance of winning and quite frankly, I think her only evil goal is to open up and put on a public display all of the NRA spending to do nothing but try to embarrass the NRA leadership.
DM says: Even if some of the officials are committing fraud on the members that does not mean the org itself is corrupt or doing anything against the law. I agree with Brian that LaPierre is not the exec he should be. Have never liked him.
Todd Huff says: I’m pretty sure the picture you have illustrating the article is of FDR’s National Recovery Administration logo, not the National Rifle Association.
GWB says: *facepalm* Yes.
GWB says: take on the NRA, gun manufacturers, retailers & banks that fund these weapons of death
Yeah, that would seem to be outside your lane, since they are all legal activities by legal entities.
New York’s charities laws
It’s a non-profit, not a charity.
undermine its own mission
That would seem to be not within your purview, but something the members and board should deal with.
designed to protect NRA members and donors
We are seeking to dissolve the NRA
Seems to me those two statements are in direct contradiction to each other. You don’t protect members of an organization by “dissolving” said organization.
Also, she is charging the NRA… for being defrauded? WTF?
bankrupt the NRA
Yeah, so she’s trying to deny all those people their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights under color of authority. Why is there not a federal charge against her for this?
what is stopping Planned Parenthood from being similarly sued
Quite simply the fact that PP hasn’t evidently had the financial shenanigans that the NRA has in the last few years. At least not where they could play out in the public eye.
The NRA has announced that they are ready for the legal fight.
I can’t find the reference, but I thought I saw they have already filed counter-suit as of this morning.
If we want to stop this crap, we need to apply direct consequences to these folks for violating the letter and spirit of our Constitution and the law. Until then, prosecutors will continue to be the avenue of attack for Soros and his henchcritters to obtain their power in the US, applying lawfare to break our republic and the free citizens of it.
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