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 $$$ going local. Because the efforts of the IFC and like minded voters have accomplished great things in the state of Iowa. In regards to returning 2nd Amendment Rights to the law abiding citizens of Iowa.
Any money I donated to Negating Rights Away goes to GOA FPC SAF and my state organizations but not one penny to the infringers at NRA.
All of the requests I get for donations go into the shredder without opening. I quit sending letters as to why I quit donating to the NRA. Crickets. They get ignored.
30 year life member here……suckered into wasting $$$ on life memberships for wife and 4 kids and daughter in law and three grandkids……
I will NEVER give nra another penny and when I receive their mail I STUFF EVERY PREPAID ENVELOPE WITH THEIR SOLICITATIONS AND A NOTE TO wayne
Name them in my will………sure. Thanks for the gun control.
What a pile of corrupt A$$HOLES
In regards to “returning” 2nd Amendment Rights to the law abiding citizens of Iowa. WTF ? This should not be ! I always found it odd to have to pay someone to retain a RIGHT. At that point they are not RIGHTS.
I had upgraded to Patron Life Member before finding out how corrupt the organization had become. When the NRA calls for a donation, which is rare now, I ask if Wayne retired or was fired. When they reply he is still in charge I respond with “Why are you calling me? I told you last time to not call me again until Wayne is gone.” On the most recent call they immediately forwarded me to a prerecorded message so they must get that a lot. For the first time I plan to attend the members’ meeting on 15 April and… Read more »
Go for it, Sir!
Will be there with you!
Keep an eye out for me and introduce yourself.
I won’t even “round up” to the nearest dollar that some retailers do. Speaking of which, I recently saw one retailer was rounding up for the GOA!
Same with me Darkman. Even bought into the Patriot Level Buy Ups for a little bit, until information was released about WLP’s shenanigans a few years back and then I stopped.
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.
Weaklings and liars tend to go AWOL when their lies get exposed. He likely won’t be back. Good riddance to bad rubbish! 🙂
He’s writing for the Daily Wire. I saw an article there by him yesterday.
Daily Wire? Isn’t that right up there with Natoonsl Enquirer?
He’s left for RINOville writing milquetoast dreck for Western Journal and a couple other RINO-owned political outlets. It suits him, and he will not be missed here!
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 »
All these groups are already pulling the weight for defending our Rights, and NRA is moribund, so I believe that with the NRA gone for good these groups will see more than a fraction. Court challenges from GOA & FPC to gun control schemes all across the country have been gaining more and more traction since 2019 (when WLP’s grift was exposed). Just wait till they get a MUCH LARGER slice of the $350-400M typical donation amounts that used to annually go to NRA. With Bruen decided in our favor, the tide is turning even if at times it appears… Read more »
Stick a fork in the NRA just not a silver fork or Waine will steal it .
Better count them when he leaves.
He’s probably down to stealing even the stainless steel flatware now. Not nearly so much free cash floating around for the grabbing nowdays. OFC, he’ll still steal. It just won’t be in the quantities that he’s used to. So he’ll just keep on stealing them blind… until the theft leftovers won’t even pay the light bill. Then he’ll quit and move on to the next promising scam. Maybe junk bonds? Nah, that was yesterday’s scam. Probably more like selling stock in an up and coming ‘gold mine’… based on salted core samples, OFC! Preserving his plausible deniability. When his ‘investors’… Read more »
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.
I stopped at Patron a few years back. Like you, I’d hoped it could be reformed with a new BOD coming aboard. Alas, the same crap kept going on.
Aw! You got my hopes up! I thought it had already happened from that headline.
There’s my little heard from fellow lurker! What’s new Nanashi? Except for that Latrine continues his reign of theft, OFC… 🙂
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.
Nothing wrong with a $4,000 suit when you pay for it with your own money. Wayne was buying $10,000 suits and putting on an expense account. (FWIW if you ever get a custom or semi-custom suit you’ll never go back to buying off the rack. I can’t fault a person for that so long as it’s acquired honestly.)
Absolutely true–if it’s with your own money. And I do buy custom tailored suits. But I fly to Thailand and buy a few at a time for much less than $10,000/copy.
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.
They can go bankrupt for all I care. As a matter of fact I wish they would. As far as wayne LePew, I hope he becomes the most miserable person alive.
I am a “former” Life member. How does that even happen? Ask your FUDDS at the NRA.
Good riddance. FPC and GOA actually do something other than Negotiate Rights Away. Years ago I was fooled into a life membership, which you can’t resign from. Perhaps now they’ll stop sending me all the junk mail
To all those that trash NRA’s mailings: Instead, do as I (a longtime life member) do, anything that has a postage paid return envelope gets sent back! Preferably with something from a “Real Gun Rights Organization”! My small contribution to the bankruptcy.
You go NRA! You protect and defend the cancer from within, and you can’t figure out, or refuse to accept the obvious reason why, and take corrective action. Then you’re looking to blame external influences to blame, for going down the tube. Interestingly, in order to become a member at my gun range, you have to be a member of NRA.
My gun club used to require NRA membership but have now added GOA, CCRKBA, and SAF.
Back in 2016 some of that money was from me. I let my membership lapse a year and a half ago after extreme corruption was uncovered. Would have been sooner but they already had my dues money. I started sending the begging letters back with notation that there would be no more until WLP was gone.
I became a “Life Member” back in the 1970’s. Mainly because I didn’t want to keep paying dues forever. And I believed in what the NRA stood for. Can I complain? No. I’ve been getting the magazine since day one and it is usually filled with a lot of useful information. But for some reason…I’m not sure why but I suspect I have an idea…THEY WOULD NEVER ADDRESS THE POWER OF THE JURY. I’ve never seen one time in all these years an article explaining how juries can nullify bad law with not guilty pleas. I wrote an article on… Read more »
I’m a Benefactor level member. I got my life membership many years ago. Nowadays, however, I’m almost ashamed to be a member of the NRA. They keep begging from me, and I recently emailed them that, until LaPierrre and his cronies are gone, they can count me out.
If you are in Tennessee and looking for an organization that has been fighting there for almost 3 decades and STILL runs on an entirely volunteer board and administration, take a look at Tennessee Firearms Association – in fact, you can get on the TFA’s email list for legislative and other updates at no cost.
20 years ago I sent a check for $1.00 and have never received another donation letter since. I am a life member since 1990.
Got my ballot yesterday, why bother voting? The parasites have destroyed the NRA
My comment sequestered? “Disgraceful” is not an acceptable word, against the rules?
If this happens and I believe it will harm gun owners, maybe the NRA can be reconstituted under good, transparent leadership and management.
I sure will miss the American Rifleman magazine. I visited the museum a few times when I was stationed at Ft Meade, MD. It had an awesome collection of firearms!
Disgrace; LaPierre should leave the U.S and go back to his relatives in Dijon France and work in their bicycle factory. They should keep an eye on him though… he’ll be stealing the bicycles out the back door and selling them to the local kids.
What many forget is that NRA is far more than a gun rights organization. They are the biggest organization when it comes to gun education. They are also very involved in the competition world. They do a lot with police training as well.
If NRA goes down, all of that goes away as well.
There is a special place in hell for Wayne.
An NRA member since about 1953 and presently Patron Life, I wondered some years ago when Col. Oliver North bailed out of the NRA presidency. I suspect Ollie learned what he had inherited and wanted no part of it. I want to love the NRA for all its valiant efforts and traditions, but it becomes more difficult as long as WLP and the ‘old guard” remain in business. I donate to GOA, not NRA. Sad, because NRA has so many valuable aspects and fine programs, but a thorough house-cleaning is necessary.
Sad that management has treated the membership as a cash cow.
The membership only wanted to protect their nation, to protect
their families. Modulating conflict to generate an income stream,
is not a defense of rights. It is corporate mentality hubris.
I am beginning to wonder about GOA and SAF which appear to be run by the same people. Am I seeing an issue or not?
If any of you will attend the NRA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis 14-16 April, take some time to attend the members’ meeting on Saturday the 15th. Do not applause, just stand and turn your back when Wayne comes out to speak.
Everyone involved should be facing a rock pile for the rest of their lives. I wonder how many offshore accounts they have accumulated by now ? Thanks to the help of some politicians that are most likely doing the same. When your dealing with this amount of money, over how many years ? It only stands to reason. You would have to be a complete idiot not to have any. But we’ll never hear of these. lol
Since I was defrauded of my $500 when I became a Life Time Member back about 1998, can I get that back now?
For someone very familiar with the issue of 2A rights and it advocacy organizations in the US, ceasing donations to the NRA, when already donating to GOA, state orgs, etc., is an easy call. The problem for 2A advocacy is, in the minds of the vast public, the NRA is the main/supreme defender of American gun owners. Any scandal therein therefore smears our cause. The only remedy, in my view, is just to continue supporting the allied non-NRA orgs in the gun rights movement.
The NRA had money and money is power.The lobbyist alone were a powerful force.I am not saying they ran it well at all, i am just saying now the biggest name in 2A rights and training is going down. This is just what the antis wanted all along. we are in for a serious fight and this is a battle lost and we are in for bad times ahead as far as are 2A rights are concerned!
The NRA appears to be padding their membership numbers. How? I left them several years ago and quit paying dues. They still send me e-publications just as they did when I was a member. They are quite likely doing the same for others. And they’re probably using those inflated numbers to influence politicians and advertisers. Given that the great majority of NRA and FORMER NRA members are Conservative, Patriotic and Law-abiding, it doesn’t take much to understand that we would not support thievery. When will the firearms industry figure this out and stop advertising with them? The NRA leadership should… Read more »
Will the ILA survive ? Little has been reported on its revenue stream.
Funding all comes from the same pot. Regardless of which part of the NRA you donate to. It goes in the same bank account.
Hopefully not. ILA was doing as much or more harm than good for us.
I listened to a video of the owner of SB Tactical the other day, and he stated ILA was fully funding their fight against the pistol brace ban;…fwiw.
They will still be around to rush in and claim credit for the work of GOA, Second Amendment Foundation and FRPC
clueless fudds are still donating to the NRA. can’t wait until the NRA and fudds all die off, they’re all the same poison that have dwindled our rights into what they are today. the sooner they’re all gone the better. send your money to GOA and FPC
Wayne LaPierre will long be remembered by the Democratic Party as a hero for bringing down the largest and most powerful Conservative organization that ever existed. I’m sure we’ll never get a clear understanding of just how many hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen and spent on things that didn’t benefit gun owners or true Americans. A lot of good can be done with hundreds of millions of dollars.
WTF??? I JUST RENEWED MY MEMBERSHIP! — WHICH IS “MANDATORY TO KEEP MEMBERSHIP AT MY GUN CLUB’!!!!
You need to educate your gun club. If they won’t be educated you need to find another or you should have the balls to refuse to pay, make them justify it and throw you out……….just like refusing to be jabbed
ANY ORGANIZATION STILL CONTRIBUTING TO NRA IS CORRUPT.
HEAR THAT Midway? Hear that Brownells? (who was a rubber stamp director)
Stop supporting nra and give to GOA and FRPC
Don’t fret it. Just go to the NRA Annual Meeting (nraam.org) in April, attend the members’ meeting on Saturday and peaceably let your voice be heard.
Gun clubs obtain their liability insurance through the NRA at a discount if all members belong to the NRA. Very few to no underwriters will provide coverage to gun clubs depending upon where they are. So it’s basically coverage via the NRA or nothing at all. Nothing at all is not really an option as all members could be held accountable particularly the officers of the club if it’s ever sued. That’s the reason why gun clubs incorporate mostly as non profits and carry NRA insurance to protect their membership. Also why most local gun clubs are members only. It’s… Read more »
You do not have to be an NRA member club to get insurance from Lockton.
Thank you for clarifying this. I’ve heard something like that before.
That’s not always a choice. There isn’t a gun range within an hour’s drive of me that doesn’t require a NRA membership.
Read Dogma Factor’s comment. It’s just a couple of comments below this one. I’ve heard his explanation from several people (including the BOD of the range I belong to) and it appears to be true. I know some larger municipalities have public ranges but I’m in a pretty rural area and just about everything around here is privately owned so they can make just about whatever membership requirements they want.
I think the only changes we will see is the cost of membership will increase if they’re forced to buy insurance somewhere else or some ranges will close.
Yes, that is the only reason I’ve seen as to why those ranges require NRA membership and that’s to satisfy the requirements set forth by the NRA for providing the insurance.
The CCP doesn’t want either one.
If it’s like our local Indoor Range, it’s tied into their Liability Insurance. Some Underwriter that gave a special rate to clubs that insisted members be NRA members.
WLP probably got a kickback for that too. Who knows?
That was what I was told when I went to a board meeting. I’d intended to run for a slot that opened a couple of years back. I decided not after hearing that.
Regardless of what the NRA did, that is just what the left was waiting for. The NRA really screwed us all even if a person was or was not a member. the left is slowly chipping away at pro gun and 2A organizations, essentially reducing strong opposition when of comes to making gun control laws regardless what the NRA did they still had strong influence in congress against the far left.
I’m a lifetime member and still pays my dues ( but nothing else ) l keep hoping and praying the NRA will get back on track. I wonder if Mr. Knox got a petition with active voting members and a donation from us, so we can do a much needed hostile takeover? We could drastically reduce the officers, board members and stupid gifts made in China. Get back on track with 2A issues, training, museum, Eddie Eagle program.
Why not skip the training (available elsewhere), museum and Eddis Beagle and dump mass funding into pro-gun lawsuits and legislation (and dismantling of), and fighting the NFA, GCA and BUTF?