Once More Into the Breach: Trying to Save the NRA

Jeff Knox addresses NRA members during 2023 Annual Meeting. (Photo credit: John Richardson)
Jeff Knox addresses NRA members during 2023 Annual Meeting. (Photo credit: John Richardson)

Tombstone, Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- As I do almost every year, I once again made the trek to the NRA Annual Meeting of Members to try and push the NRA Board of Directors to take responsible action to do what’s best for NRA members and the Association.

Historically, it has been an exercise of futility, and this year was no exception.

Some 77,000 NRA members gathered in Indianapolis, Indiana, over the weekend of April 14 through 16th, 2023, for the association’s Annual Meeting and Exhibits. Most were just there for the guns and gear in the exhibit hall, but a few hundred took the time to attend the Annual Meeting of Members in an adjacent hall on Saturday morning. While the turnout for the meeting this year was much better than in recent years, it was still woefully low, with only about 600 to 700 members (and spouses, etc.) in attendance.

This year’s meeting was significantly abbreviated, as they cut out the customary speeches from the various officers. President Charles Cotton opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, a nice rendition of the National Anthem from a local City Councilman, and an excellent prayer from NRA Director and Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina Mark Robinson, who made an impassioned plea for all to put duty and service above personal benefit, and strive for hearts of service. This was followed by the annual comedy routine of Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre trying to identify the oldest and youngest Life Members in attendance.

Usually, this would be followed by “Reports” (speeches) from each of the Association’s top officers. Still, instead of hearing from the President, two Vice Presidents, and the Directors of General Operations and the Institute for Legislative Action, only NRA employee Wayne LaPierre delivered a speech.

Former Congressman Bob Barr, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee on Elections, delivered an actual report, going through the numbers on the recent Director elections and revealing that only about 3% of eligible NRA members bothered to return their ballots. Still, LaPierre’s was the only traditional speech in the meeting. It was a relatively good speech, with all of the patriotic buzzwords and invocations. Still, nothing to write home about, and the lackluster reception of the audience, both before and after the speech, was noteworthy. A few years ago, he would have received a standing ovation for just being introduced. Still, this year his introduction received polite applause, and the close of his “barn burner” got fewer than 25% of attendees unenthusiastically on their feet.

From there, the agenda jumped right into Resolutions. The first of those was from a gentleman I hadn’t met, who proposed several changes to the way the Association runs its elections. Secretary Frazer read the resolution to the assembly. Then President Cotton declared that, since election procedures are spelled out in the Association’s Bylaws, the proper way to propose the changes would be through an amendment to the Bylaws. He then declared the resolution “out-of-order” and moved on. President Cotton could have suggested a couple of minor changes bringing the resolution “in-order” by making it a request that the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee explore the proposed changes and either act on them or report back to the membership as to why they were not workable or desirable. Then the membership at the meeting could have voiced their support or opposition to the ideas. But that’s not how NRA “leaders” roll these days.

Next up was a resolution I introduced calling for a vote of No Confidence in President Cotton and Second Vice President David Coy.

In my resolution, I pointed out that the Association has been going through some serious problems and that all of those problems are the result of things that the Audit Committee was supposed to notice and prevent or correct. President Cotton and VP Coy have, between them, been Chair and/or Vice Chair of the Association’s Audit Committee for more than twenty years. I argued that their severe failures in their duties on the Audit Committee make them culpable for the struggles the Association has been going through. I also noted that both have, in sworn testimony, admitted that they guided outside auditors away from LaPierre’s office and acted on LaPierre’s requests based on personal friendship and trust, ignoring their obligations and duties on the Audit Committee.

Again, the resolution was read to the assembly by Secretary Frazer, then President Cotton raised some technical issue regarding a particular portion of the resolution, arbitrarily declaring that portion of the resolution to be “stricken” from the text before allowing me to speak to my resolution. I objected to the striking of anything from the resolution. Still, in the interest of avoiding complicating an already complicated discussion and vote, I agreed to move forward with the resolution as amended by the President. I laid out my case and yielded the floor. Several Directors were already heading for the microphones to argue against the resolution, and, as expected, their main arguments were aimed at me, not the resolution or the validity of the facts it contained.

A vote was taken, and the resolution was defeated.

Next up was my resolution of No Confidence against Wayne LaPierre.

Secretary Frazer read the rather long resolution in a deadpan fashion, and I was again given the opportunity to speak to my resolution. I emphasized that in the past four years, the NRA has lost about one-third of our Annual Members – about 1.5 million of them – and almost one-half of our annual income – a decline of about $180 million per year compared to 2019.

I also pointed out that not only was LaPierre’s $1.7 million salary unjustifiable, but he also received a generous expense account and had another hidden expense account provided by a primary vendor, accepted generous gifts from vendors, and had NRA pay for private jet travel for himself and his extended family on multiple trips to the Bahamas. Wher he enjoy weeks of vacation time on a vendor’s luxury yacht, all without reporting any of it to the Audit Committee. The resolution also highlighted several damning statements LaPierre has made over the years, including his declaration that “The NRA believes that (bump-stocks) should be more tightly regulated,” “The NRA believes in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America’s schools, period,” the NRA supports background checks on all gun transfers at gun shows. NRA supports red flag laws as long as some semblance of due process is included.

After I stated the case for the resolution, Directors again rushed to the microphones in LaPierre’s defense, again focusing on me and my motivations while mostly ignoring the facts of my resolution. A few made lame attempts to justify things like LaPierre’s private jet travel and security expenses, and someone blamed COVID for the losses in membership and revenues (ignoring the fact that all other gun rights groups have seen record growth during the past 4 years), but most just either praised LaPierre as a hero or condemned me as a villain. I was most disappointed by Mark Robinson’s denunciation of the resolution as an attack on the NRA. I had hoped his earlier prayer was an indication that he was aware of the self-serving chicanery that’s been rampant in the higher echelons of the NRA for years and was ready to get on board with efforts to right the ship.

Still, I guess self-serving actions are only wrong when it’s not his friends engaging in them.

A few regular members stood to support or oppose the resolution, with some of them clearly entirely taken by surprise by the accusations and denouncing the “lack of proof.” Obviously, they’ve not been paying any attention at all. I suppose we could politely request that my articles citing court documents, and NRA internal reports be published in the NRA’s official journals so NRA members could keep informed, but I doubt the folks at headquarters would go along with that.

For the second year in a row, a troll from a YouTube “comedy” duo known as “The Good Liars” was able to get recognized at a microphone to dive into a twisted rant about guns and children. I realized he was a troll as soon as he started talking, but he was allowed to continue for several minutes before his microphone was unceremoniously turned off. The video clip has already started making the rounds among anti-rights video channels.

In the end, Ronnie Barrett called the question on my resolution, and the vote ran about 1/3rd in favor and 2/3rds opposed, with many in attendance not voting at all. The meeting was then adjourned.

In the Board meeting on the following Monday, as expected, the Board voted to amend the Bylaws to allow Cotton to run for a third term. Then in a surprise move, the board elected Bob Barr to replace Willes Lee as First Vice President. Without the Bylaw change, Lee would have been expected to be elected President at that meeting. Cotton would have been elected to an honorary position on the Executive Council. David Coy would have been moved up to First VP, but apparently, Lee’s recent public commitment to full transparency was seen as something of a threat that had to be stopped.

Of course, they also reelected Wayne LaPierre to another year as Executive VP, and they elected Randy Kosuch as the new Executive Director of ILA, a post he’s filled temporarily since the sudden resignation of Jason Ouimet from that position a few months ago.

The good news from the meeting is that there has been some rebounding in memberships and revenue. Not nearly enough to make a significant impact, but at least it’s an improvement. I remain convinced that the Association is on the brink of bankruptcy and that if they finally do get to trial in the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit, they will lose in grand fashion, probably destroying any chance of preserving or regenerating the Association.

The 2023 NRA meeting resolutions I offered at the meeting are available to read on the Firearmscoalition.org website, along with a number of court documents and financial documents, like several years worth of the Association’s IRS reports. There are also numerous articles about internal NRA issues going back decades. Much of this is also available in the Ammoland.com archives. On either my website or Ammoland.com, enter “NRA” in the search bar, and you’ll have hours of research at your fingertips.

On a personal note: If you appreciate the efforts and expense I go through to keep you informed about what’s going on inside the NRA and my work trying to restore that once-great organization, please consider visiting FirearmsCoalition.org and kicking in a little support so I can afford to keep bringing this information to light.

Every time I write about the NRA, several people in the comments will say something like, “Jeff’s right! All of my contributions are going to GOA (SAF, FPC, or some other rights group) from now on.” What I’ve never seen, though, is someone saying, “Jeff’s right! I’m going to support his efforts by subscribing to his newsletter and joining The Firearms Coalition.” It’s frankly a little disheartening, especially since my detractors routinely accuse me of doing all of this just for profit

My wife wishes this was true. A little funding would be really helpful about now. Thanks.


About Jeff Knox:

Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.

The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona, and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org.

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Roverray

I think all voting members should be allowed to vote for or out every office position in the NRA. If Wayne really cared about the organization he would resign, he is now a liability and he has been like for years, hindering growth and donations. We need to shrink the size of the board of directors too.

Arizona

There is no saving that corrupt cesspool of villainy and scum. Wayne and quite a few others should be in prison. The NRA has supported every gun control bill through congress, and even written a few, in direct violation of the 2nd amendment. F the NRA. Start a new org, boycott those sellouts. Its only good aspect was instruction.

Steve

How about this – since so many of the promotional avenues of the NRA were of the “I AM THE NRA” type – with the inclusion of photos of folks from all walks of life…..F you too turd muncher. Go crawl back in your hovel you ignorant dipshitt. I don’t like Wayne the Stain either. But, I don’t crap on an entire organization of 12 million citizens. All those other “Johnny come Lately” organizations wouldn’t even be around without the NRA having blazed the path and built the shield wall to protect the NRA. Go suck up to the NSSF… Read more »

Darkman

A classic case of physician Heal Thy Self. As a Life member of several decades. I stopped supporting the NRA financially long ago. When it became abundantly clear that the wants of the NRA Elites had become more important than the needs of the membership. We had become nothing more than a bank account for supporting the elite Lifestyle of WLP and his Acolytes on the BOD. If those who truly want to see the NRA saved. Then they will have to change the leadership and cut the Cancer from the organization. Otherwise the long slow death will continue until… Read more »

Chuck

Hear, Hear. I agree with you. I will not give up my Life Membership. I saved a sacrificed to become a Life Member, but I no longer send Financial Support, and haven’t for a dozen or so years.
If the NRA becomes insolvent, and its assets auctioned off, I hope it will serve as an example to the younger 2A Groups of “How Not To Run A National Organization.”

Steve

Might be too late seeing as how the NSSF is butt buddies with the ATF and so many others roll over and put theirs in the air in order to “compromise” at the state level”. Every single NRA State Chapter has to do some serious soul searching. When these State Chapters begin to join together and put serious financial pressure on WLP and his little group of Garden Gnomes – then, and only then, will he and the rest be forced out. Money talks, bullshit walks.

Grigori

That is really disappointing information about Lt Governor Mark Robinson. I had viewed him as a good and honest man. This changes that, sad to say.

Partially rebounding membership and revenue does not sound like a good thing to me. The sooner the NRA “crashes and burns”, the better off we will all be.

Bigfootbob

“Still, I guess self-serving actions are only wrong when it’s not his friends engaging in them.”

Whew! The paragraphs preceding this statement are quite disappointing, then add this personal observation from a super trustworthy Patriot, there’s a big problem with Mr. Robinson.

Hopefully, he has a come to Jesus moment and figures out he made a big mistake and makes amends, otherwise, there’s going to be a big problem for him moving forward with many people who would be his natural advocates.

Last edited 11 months ago by Bigfootbob
Steve

Oh yeah. Mark Robinson is going to get up there and loudly and profusely Vilify the NRA National Organization and say they need a wholesale change – right after he has announced his candidacy for the Governor’s race of North Carolina. What the hell are you people smoking? He’d end up throwing away 250,000 votes in this state alone. Jeez Louise – get a grip. Your hatred for the NRA has blinded you to any sense of reality.

DIYinSTL

But did Robinson need to give a speech slamming Mr. Knox and praising LaPierre as though he walks on water and is the sole and only successful defender of the Second Amendment? As an aside, I was surprised to see the Lt. Governor wearing a cheap suit and sneakers. Obviously Wayne hasn’t introduced Robinson to his tailor yet.

Austin

Jeff Knox, I appreciate your efforts. I will endeavor to donate to the cause. But, I fear your Mrs. will be unimpressed by what I can offer and my Mrs. will be distressed at the amount deducted from our mothly budget. Regardless, I fear there is nothing left for the NRA except jail time for Wayne. God bless you, Sir.

Colt

I thought about this all day at work. I’m Life GOA, my brother is Life NRA. I give him black eyes about the NRA. How do you change this mess? I live in a small one traffic light farming town. It is predominately Mennonite. The “old guard” run the town. Its who you know and how many generations your family has “ran” things. I think NRA is sort of the same way… The fact that board members are shocked to hear about things they should know about but don’t, doesn’t surprise me. The backslapping good ole boys club is alive,… Read more »

Mikial

My wife and I retain our NRA memberships because I like to get both magazines each month. I stopped donating to the ILA, PVF, and the Whittington Center long ago. I’m a member of the GOA, a Front Line Defender in the NAGR, the USCCA, and our state organization. I act on every call to action that comes through my inbox and I’m politically active at election time. I tell you all this so my next sentence has some context. I get alerts and calls for action from all the organizations I belong to except the NRA. They rarely send… Read more »

DIYinSTL

A lot of people at NRAAM told me how disgusted they were with Wayne LaPierre but none of them showed up at the short members meeting which was largely populated by Wayne fan-boys who wanted to hear him speak. The two resolutions that were ruled out of order were simply Future ballots shall give the option to vote “For”, “Against”, or “Abstain” for the directors, just like they are on any shareholder’s ballot. Future ballots shall have a binding vote of (no)confidence for the position of executive vice president. Nothing in the resolution was an indication of support or disapproval… Read more »

warfinge

*sigh* so the top heavy fall of the NRA is looking inevitable and the crew of parasites running it will land with golden parachutes. With this economy, I struggle to give money to any charity. I will shoot some to The Firearms Coalition. I tire of groups of people enriching themselves by ignoring oaths and responsibility. I have been NRA free for more than 2 years now. My lack of funding to them has made no changes in the way they do business. It’s a sad shame really…

StLPro2A

In attendance in Indy, very sad, disappointed to see Ronnie Barrett in action described. Guess, having sold his company, he no longer needs to be seen as a patriot defending freedom. Put my hand on LePewpew’s shoulder prior the Thursday evening banquet/auction saying, “That’s a really nice suit, but you’ve become a liability and distraction, an obstacle to the NRA true mission. You need to go..” I’d be really, really nervous having a “$1,700,000+ annual pension until death does he part,” what with the economical compensation packages of Accident Men….Tony the Tiger G-R-E-A-T…ROI. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Oh, you know I’m… Read more »

DIYinSTL

What’s the emoji for thumbs up? You get three. How’d you get so close to Wayno? Sorry we didn’t link up there and I’m not driving to Texas next year. I was so disgusted after the meeting I’m not sure I’ll ever go again. I was at Busch Wildlife running an HPR competition this morning. Brrrr.

ShooterOne

I will never, never renew my membership in the NRA, it doesn’t matter if they kick LaPierre and all of his cronies out. There are so many REAL Second Amendment supporters that do much more for gun owners and patriotic Americans than the NRA it will not be difficult to find one.

I just wish one could pick one organization and support it to the fullest. I understand that more organizations probably mean more to the politicians and their re-election hopes than doing what is best for our Constitution and Bill of Rights. So SAD.

J.galt

Who are the IDIOTS that continue to fund / support the nra?

I stand against wayne

Ken

Spin off the Education & Training Div. into a separate organization and dump the rest. So many forget the good work E&T Div does. One example is how the loss of the only widely recognized Instructor Credentialing program would greatly impact the training industry. Most, if not all, instructor liability insurance firms require such credentials.

jukk0u

The only reason I am a current member of the NRA is the education and training benefits which are utilized by the gun club I joined. It is a requirement for membership. Yours is a sound idea.

Cappy

The NRA has repeatedly demonstrated they are not on the side of gun owners. SAF, CCRKBA, GOA and other more local organizations have consistently stepped up to the plate. Why would anybody contribute to those not on our side? It’s too late to salvage the NRA. We need to offer greater support to those organizations working to actually defend the Second Amendment.

Dr. Strangelove

I sent my ballot in. I took a marker and wrote “Get rid of La Pierre” on it in big letters.

Oldman

Do you think that they even open the ballots and tabulate them? I don’t.

Bill

Jeff your facts and judgments are noted and appreciated!

pigpen51

Jeff, I know just how much you do for the NRA and the 2nd Amendment protection in particular, to try and help the Americans who deserve to keep their rights, including all of the other spelled out and just implicit ones that the Constitution attempts to protect. And I am forever in your debt. However, at this time, on my fixed budget, I can’t give to your financial assistance, because I just renewed my membership to the NRA, which comes due in May. I also have to renew my subscription to both Guns magazine and American Handgunner magazine. Those are… Read more »

Robert B Young, MD

Jeff, thank you so much, again!

Xaun Loc

The best thing that could happen for gun owners in America is the dissolution of the NRA, which has never been pro-RKBA and in fact was the major force supporting the creation of federal gun control. The NRA lobbied FOR the NFA and FFA.

Larry

Out of sight, out of mind, Jeff. I just realized I haven’t given my periodic contribution to the Firearms Coalition since 2019… but what used to remind me was your excellent newsletter, which I also don’t remember seeing in a long, long time. I’ll remedy that today. I’ll also try to make sure I don’t confuse you with the Firearms Policy Coalition, which I have been donating to somewhat regularly.

Jim P

Jeff, thank you for your efforts. I’m a Life Member of the NRA, but haven’t sent them a cent for several years now. Until major substantive changes are made, I never will. Sadly, I think the NRA is done. My concern is that the other alphabet groups won’t coalesce into the type of national entity we need to address our needs. Regardless, I sent you a small donation. Use it in good health.

Steve

“While the turnout for the meeting this year was much better than in recent years, it was still woefully low, with only about 600 to 700 members (and spouses, etc.) in attendance.” Now hang on here Jeff, were those “spouses” also members? Or do you only count the gray/whitehaired guys with paunches wearing suspenders? My wife is a Life member along with me. She hunts, target shoots, and joins me reloading all the time now that we’re both retired. She attends meetings with me as well – and has done so for 40 years. This is one of the reasons… Read more »