Opinion by Former NRA Director-Rocky Marshall.
Fairfax, VA – -(AmmoLand.com)- To NRA Members: IT IS OVER!
The NRA’s financials are spiraling rapidly towards insolvency, and the future appears bleak for the survivability of the NRA, which may be forced into bankruptcy (for real this time) in the coming months. The next and final chapter for the NRA will be in a bankruptcy court, where a Judge will likely appoint a “Receiver” to take control of the assets of the NRA.
The NRA has been thriving for over 150 years; but will likely not survive until the end of this year.
This once great organization is now facing dissolution as the direct result of malfeasance by Wayne LaPierre and the impotent Board of Directors (BOD). Undoubtedly, key management personnel, including Wayne Lapierre, Wilson Phillips, and others, will likely face criminal charges for embezzlement, fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and other charges.
The NRA, in the coming months, will not be able to pay outstanding bills or maintain staff to fulfill the mission due to the rapid decline of donations by members. In 2016, NRA revenues reached a peak of $367 million and currently is projected to receive $200 million for the current fiscal year 2022. The collapse in donations is directly related to the revelations that the NRA Management misused millions of dollars of donations for personal benefit. The misuse of NRA monies by NRA Management and the BOD has been reported as far back as 1998 when a complaint was filed by NRA Directors with the FEC.¹
A question that is often repeated is: “Why did the NRA BOD allow Wayne Lapierre and others to misuse the donations & defraud the members?”
The most obvious answer is that a few key Directors were being paid. From 2002 through 2020, over $10 million dollars have been paid directly or indirectly to NRA Directors. A secondary issue is that NRA Directors were not informed and also routinely presented false information by NRA Officers and Management in order to hide the truth. During my tenure as an NRA Director, I was routinely denied access to information and also received blatantly untrue information from NRA officers. The NRA BOD has not provided proper fiduciary oversight of the NRA for decades. The NRA BOD could have easily stopped the fraud and mismanagement by Wayne LaPierre (and others) but instead chose to ignore the obvious illegal activities. The BOD audit committee (chaired by the current President, Charles Cotton) approved transactions retroactively without BOD approval.
The current lawsuit from the New York Attorney General will likely not go to trial; but, instead, will be superseded by a forced bankruptcy.
The negative press reports from these legal filings will continue to drive donors away, and revenues will decline. As a former Director for the NRA, I have researched the complaints by the New York Attorney General and found all charges to be true. I could not identify a single charge that was untrue or exaggerated. As has been reported, Wayne Lapierre has admitted to several of the charges in the previous bankruptcy trial in Dallas.
Historians and columnists will report in future years that the NRA was destroyed from within by the greed of NRA Management Wayne LaPierre, Woody Phillips, (and others) and also by the lack of oversight by the NRA Board of Directors. Collectively this group has destroyed the most valuable gun rights organization on the planet.
Rocky Marshall
Former NRA Director – 2021
NRA Life Benefactor Member
1. Weldon H. Clark Jr. FEC Complaint 1998 (https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/4865/00001F57.pdf)
Weldon H. Clark Jr. FEC National Rifle Association (NRA) Complaint 1998
As a Life member of the NRA. Paid a 1 time membership fee decades ago. I stopped donating several years ago when the Lapierre/BOD pay and play scandal became obvious. I now support GOA and AFA, as well as the IFC in Iowa. With most of my $$$ going local. Because the efforts of the IFC and like minded voters have accomplished great things in the state of Iowa. In regards to returning 2nd Amendment Rights to the law abiding citizens of Iowa.
The L.O.C.F., LaPierre Organized Crime Family, referred to in court documents as the National Rifle Association, is the only organization I’ve seen, or even heard of, where the executive staff employees have complete power and control over the Board Of Directors. It’s supposed to work the other way around. That in and of itself is the hallmark of corrupt leadership.
I’m just waiting on our local NRA shill to come on here and tell us how the NRA is doing fine and what a hero Wayne is.
The NRA has been dead to me for over a decade. How anyone paying attention could believe the NRA is salvageable is beyond me. There is nothing left of the positive & effective gun rights organization that we all once knew and admired. IT’S OVER. The quicker the NRA is dead & buried and Wayne is thrown in jail, the quicker true 2A organizations can grow with the support that was once sent to the NRA. Imagine what could be achieved by the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America & others with with just small fractions of the $200,000,000… Read more »
Stick a fork in the NRA just not a silver fork or Waine will steal it .
I have been a Benefactor Life member for many years and had hoped that the NRA could be reformed. The fact is, they have circled the wagons and the Indians just keep on coming. They should have scalped Wayne and threw him out of the circle long ago. I cannot fathom what result they were hoping for. The resulting outcome has been obvious for years.
Aw! You got my hopes up! I thought it had already happened from that headline.
I have been a Life Member for almost 50 years and an Endowment Member for the last 25 years. I lost confidence in the NRA a number of years ago when I realized the useless BOD and King Wayne had determined to destroy the NRA. They haven’t gotten any money from me in 10 years.
Like many others here, I donated to the NRA until it became obvious that LaPierre was funneling money into his own account. The $4,000.00 suits were the final straw. My money goes to those organizations that are actually doing the work. SAF, GOA and AFA get my support, along with some local organizations that keep tabs on my own congress critters. NRA? Not one thin dime for the past 10 years or so.
I bailed on the NRA turncoats when they started saying that civilians shouldn’t be “allowed” to have .50 cal rifles. At that point, it was obvious they were corrupted from within.
Hopefully, those $ millions flow to organizations that actually DO fight for our rights (they’re not privileges) like GOA, et. al.