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Friday, December 22, 2023

The NRA Is at Rock Bottom—And 15 Years of Tax Filings Tell the Story

Few political groups in U.S. history have seen a collapse as swift and dramatic as the National Rifle Association.

Over the last several years, the NRA has experienced a public implosion, as the group loses members and revenue amid serious accusations of mismanagement and corruption. And according to the latest NRA tax returns obtained by The Daily Beast, the reputational and organizational damage is rolling on with seemingly no end in sight.
-WiscoDave

*****

I can remember a time when it seemed like damned near every pickup truck was proudly sporting an NRA sticker. Now you rarely see one and if you do, it's driven by some guy older than Methuselah.

A couple years ago I read about a gun club opening up a new members-only rifle range on Hwy 10 between here and Hartsville, and they were taking applications to join. I really, really wanted to shoot there, so I shot them an email asking for an application to join. 
A couple weeks later I got an email from them saying a spot had opened up and 'here's your application, complete it and return it along with your initiation fee, first year's dues, and proof of active membership in the NRA'.
I emailed them back thanking them for their time and consideration but there was no way in hell I would join any organization that would bargain my 2A Rights away just to use a rifle range.
I never heard a word back.

38 comments:

  1. I attended a gun show a couple of weeks ago and the NRA guy's table outside was lonlier than the Maytag repairman and they were offering a discount on admission to the show if you signed up.
    - WDS

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  2. The NRA destroyed itself not the Anti Gunners or lawyers.

    They just couldn’t resist Wayne LaPierre‘s cock.

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  3. NRA became part of the USA political swamp. Yeah, I sent them plenty of $$ over many years. It was a waste. Never again.
    /JZ

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  4. I have let my membership laps. The problem is was the NRA, then the NRA with Wayne LaPierre, then it became Wayne LaPierre and the NRA. Now it's just Wayne LaPierre and Friends.
    Our club does not make members join the NRA for the same reason.

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  5. I joined the NRA when Obama was first elected president. I never before that though that my gun rights were in danger. But after a couple of years, seeing what they were doing, I dropped out.
    I rejoined awhile back, maybe 3 years ago or so, thinking that I didn't want to see a once proud and important organization fall due to incompetent and criminal leadership. Of course now we see just how really bad they are, and the court case from the NY Attorney General is due to start just after the first of the year.
    The hope is that the judge will appoint a fiduciary as a trustee to run the group until they are able to make changes to both the leadership and the constitution, which allows for 76 board members, way too many. And Wayne LaPierre has made it his own fiefdom.
    There are other groups doing fantastic work in protecting our 2nd amendment freedoms, GOA and others. But the fact is, the numbers in the NRA are simply too large to let it die. Once things get fixed, the numbers will likely rise to well above the 4 million or so that are now in the group. Numbers like that are way above any other gun rights group.
    Imagine an NRA with 10 million members, and the political sway that they would have. The group is worth saving, if it can be saved in the right way.
    There is a blog that has been following the whole mess. The depositions by the top leadership are especially informative, with several of them having to go on record admitting the crooked activities that they engaged in.
    I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to be involved in the NRA at this time. But don't give up on the work that they might do, if they get their house in order. And while I maintain my membership, there is no way that I would send them another dime, since it would go right to lawyers fees to keep WLP and others out of jail.
    https://nraindanger.wordpress.com/
    That is the blog address, if one wants to read the dirty things that are going on. Again, I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to be involved with them. Here in Michigan we could have used some of the money that they spent on legal fees the past couple of elections, to keep the Democrats out of full control of the government. That is something that I won't forgive or forget, no matter what the outcome of the trial is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Every box of every new firearm I have seen contains a flyer to join the NRA.
      That is some great marketing.
      That the practice continues to this minute, in spite of the word getting out about Wayne, is real slick. I wonder who is paying who to keep that going.

      Delete
  6. I'm an independent voter, but I constantly vote Republican and a former NRA member. A couple years ago I had an epiphany when I realized the NRA elites were like the Republican party elites. I said to myself both the NRA & Republicans have been after me to join them just to drain my bank account. So now whenever they call to recruit me, I tell both: "I would never join an organization that’d want me". (Thanks for the inspiration, Groucho)

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  7. Is the NRA actually guilty of anything? Or are just under attack by the commie left. As they have tried to do away with the Boy Scouts, christians, family values, or any of the things that has actually built this country.

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  8. Life Member since the mid-70s. There were few if any organizations of similar stature.
    Unfortunately, what clout it wields was/is applied inefficiently.
    Other groups have been more effective in recent years.

    Gun grabbers still hate the NRA.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The gungrabbers need a bogeyman to point to, and the gun owners need someone to "provide an umbrella of protection."
      The NRA provides the bogeyman, no protection and charges its members for that service.
      I haven't had any use for them when they endorsed Dirty Harry Reid over a viable Republican candidate because Reid had gotten $7000 tax dollars for a range in Nevada.

      Delete
    2. Okay, a few years ago I pointed out the same thing about them endorsing Harry Reid and was immediately called a liar by a bunch of proud NRA members. It was even in either the Armerican Rifleman or American Handgunner. Thank you for validating that for me.

      Delete
    3. You're welcome WC.
      Maybe one of these days you will validate one of my Sea Stories.

      Delete
    4. I'll lie like a motherfucker for you, bro.

      Delete
    5. Apparently, those proud NRA members never saw the photographs of Harry Reid, Wayne La Pierre and Chris Cox 'standing shoulder to shoulder' together with their shotguns at the grand opening of the Las Vegas range that Harry bought their endorsement with.

      From a Harry Reid press release -
      According to an August 2009 press release, “Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association and other NRA members also attended today’s opening ceremony. ‘I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Senator Reid in our fight to protect the Second Amendment,’ LaPierre said. ‘I can tell you no one has been a stronger advocate for responsible gun ownership than him.’”

      BTW, Reid secured 2900 aces of BLM land and $61 million in taxpayer money to swing the deal for the Clark County Shooting Complex.

      Delete
  9. Our trap club requires NRA membership, but only because the NRA underwrites the insurance.

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  10. From today's point of view, I wholeheartedly agree with you Ken, and as a member since 1967 and a life member since 1983, I too am disgusted with them. I don't send them money and have joined and donated to other outfits that do just about all the heavy lifting (SAF & GOA).

    It wasn't always like it is now, and at one time we had at least the illusion that they were our only advocate. I think almost every gun club I've ever been a member of had it in the bylaws that club members would be NRA members, but those bylaws are outdated these days and the NRA has shown their true colors since they were written.

    In my opinion, the only people who still support the NRA these days are those who don't know any better or those who won't admit to being fleeced and used. If the modern NRA is your friend, they're the kind of friend that would bang your old lady.

    Ed

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  11. They get nothing as long as Wayne is still involved.

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  12. Replies
    1. Also: The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Second Amendment Foundation. I'm a life member of all three.
      wildbill

      Delete
  13. Well, I am a Life Member of the NRA and sport a sticker on my truck. I am 67, if that is as old as Methusalah. I also see many vehicles with the NRA sticker, at least around here. I will always be a member and hope that they clean house. I don't just quit the club when it is losing membership. I support their core values. If you or others don't, your choice, not going to damn you for that choice. Should one not support America anymore since there are so many that live here but hate America? Of course not. Please support whatever gun group you may but let's not bash the biggest gun group of all. Support reforming them without quitting the cause of supporting the 2nd amendment. F communism. Hybo

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    Replies
    1. If the NRA hadn't been here 100 years ago, there wouldn't have been anything left for these other gun groups to work with.

      Delete
    2. Have you forgotten about the NRA supporting National Firearms Act of 1934?

      Delete
    3. The NRA also supported the GCA of '68.
      Ed

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    4. Ed--
      "Just think how much worse it would have been if we hadn't intervened."

      Delete
  14. Pioneers of going woke and going broke, the NRA.
    Been a long time since "... from my cold, dead hands" Heston at least sounded good, as if they had some balls.

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  15. "And as the NRA’s power and influence has waned, gun violence has perversely soared, particularly suicides, especially in the wake of the pandemic."

    Methinks the gun violence is mainly soaring in the 'hood, criminals using guns illegally (which is redundant, I know). Almost anything found on the internet anymore talking about firearms in any way, shape or form has probably been infected by the anti-gun mind virus.

    Has use of firearms (mainly handguns and NOT those scary black rifles) for violence increased? Off Bee Eye data suggests yes (but who trusts the Eff Bea Eye anymore?). Is it mainly criminals shooting at each other?

    I stopped paying for NRA membership 8 or 10 years ago and the 2019 kerfuffle between Wayne La Pee and Colonel North made me glad that I did. If any readers here are still NRA members, perhaps read about what your dues are paying for.

    Alternatives to the NRA include GOA, FPC, NAGR and for sure individuals need to do their own research before sending any dinero to any of these groups.

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  16. I am a life member. But for the last several years I've been returning their donation mails (postage pre-paid) with a note along the lines of "No more $$$$ until Wayne is gone".

    Seems I'm getting a lot less junk mail from them lately.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Life Member since the early 90s, dues paying member before that for years, but I no longer support them. I had joined a gun rights organization and in the beginning it was but unfortunately it turned into a backstabbing click and Wayne LaPierre's personal clothing bank account... Plenty of good honest 2A organizations out there not going to waste time and money on that group..
    JD

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  18. I have a membership only because the local gun range requires it. Otherwise I'd drop it. Recently had a letter from them that talked about their "gun library" or whatever you call it. Apparently it's been a thing for people to will their gun collection to the NRA instead of leaving it for family. The letter was urging me to consider that option. Which then brings to mind a scandal from some years back. Rumors abound that the NRA elite were basically using the gun library as their personal Christmas store, simple taking whatever they wanted and keeping it. Quite a few rare and historical pieces simply disappeared. So yeah, fuck them. Either my kids get the guns or else the old lady can sell them for whatever she can get. Maybe, just maybe, I'll put labels on them with prices for her.

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  19. I was a member in the 70's-80's . When califuckya started their hardcore gun shit , I asked a nra representative at a gun show why they weren't fight the gun laws of califukya , he told me that they spent money on a easy win . They would get around to fighting califukya later. Never joined after that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In 2016, I had a lengthy talk with an NRA head honcho for Calf. He did most of the talking. He was adamant, as well as disgusted, that the NRA had abandoned the state.

      Delete
  20. Yeah, I didn't renew my membership when it became that soft-handed Sodomite Wayle La Pierre's Suit and Manicure Trust Fund. The NRA can FOAD, doing what they do now, coasting on past history while they pleasure themselves in front of a full-length mirror.

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  21. The NRA committed corporate suicide...and most of the blame belongs to the petty corrupt dilettante Wayne LaPiere.

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  22. I'm a Life Member, joining before the dirt hit. These days every appeal gets sent back with the message that there will be no money until Wayne & Company are gone.

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  23. When they still sent me requests for donations, I would remove all identifying info on the form, put as much cut up newspaper clippings as I could into the return envelope alongside it, with choice words of encouragement for Wayne to commit physiological impossible acts. That way, they had to pay extra postage for overweight mail.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used to leave all my info on and tape as many pennies as I could to a sheet of paper, tape the hell out of the envelope, then let them pay return postage. It only took a couple times before they took the hint and removed me from their mailing list. I figured it was well worth the dollar's worth of pennies it cost me.

      Delete
    2. Heh. I used to remove the identifying stuff as well, and stuff as much of the other junk mail into the envelope as would fit.

      Thanks for the pennies idea...

      Delete

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