Wayne LaPierre resigns!
- Thread starter Tennessee Gentleman
- Start date
2wheelwander
New member
Uncle Ted takes over, I'd sign back up. La Pierre was the face. How many others used donated funds. I recall I read about a $40k wedding using NRA funds? He wasn't the only one.
How many pennies of a donated dollar must go just to overhead keeping lights on. Seems its been some years under Wayne no pennies of that dollar even went to fighting for the 2A
How many pennies of a donated dollar must go just to overhead keeping lights on. Seems its been some years under Wayne no pennies of that dollar even went to fighting for the 2A
I know there have been cases where the NRA was not the "lead" organization getting them to court, but have there been any in recent decades where the NRA was not involved in some fashion??
Another point, is simply, the popular press and social media "influencers" (or what ever term applies) not giving the NRA credit for their role in anything other than giving the NRA full and FALSE credit for promoting murder.
Another point is the "what have they done for me lately" attitude. Bruen is going on a couple years ago now.
Another point, is simply, the popular press and social media "influencers" (or what ever term applies) not giving the NRA credit for their role in anything other than giving the NRA full and FALSE credit for promoting murder.
Another point is the "what have they done for me lately" attitude. Bruen is going on a couple years ago now.
The popular press has made the NRA the strawman for anything that goes wrong involving guns. School shooting? Somehow it's the fault of the NRA. A politician's pet bill doesn't get passed? It's because the NRA spent eleventy billion dollars on lobbying.
(In reality, they don't even crack the list of top 50 lobbying organizations.)
As for the social-media people, there are two problems:
- their knowledge of history only goes back a couple of years
- they want everything fixed right now or they scream betrayal
So they tell us the NRA has completely sold our rights down the river because they won't get the NFA repealed right now or California gun laws are still too strict. They don't understand there's a process, and what's more, they don't want to hear about it.
They want platitudes and "no compromise" rhetoric. So groups like NAGR and GOA jump in to fill the gap. We live in an age when grand gestures are more important than boring action.
Aguila Blanca
Staff
Perhaps you have forgotten that the NRA actively worked to BLOCK the Heller case at the Supreme Court? Then, after Heller won, the NRA portrayed their role as if they were the ones who primarily secured the win.44 AMP said:
The NRA hasn't been entirely useless, but they also have definitely not been entirely helpful.
FoghornLeghorn
New member
The hugely bloated board of directors are complicit in perpetuating this fraud. They need to go, otherwise the NRA of the future is the same old same old.
The corruption goes beyond Wayne. One of the ways he stayed in power was to have a huge Board of Directors, most of whom have fat contracts with the NRA for consulting and support. You'll have to clean out the whole mess to get to an honest organization.
ALWAYS a bad sign when your directors get fat consulting agreements.
ALWAYS a bad sign when your directors get fat consulting agreements.
Lots of good people in the NRA providing training and educational opportunities all over this country. That used to be their bread and butter. That's what they did and still do their best at.
The NRA should NOT be destroyed. We need them. They are the largest gun rights organization in the country and when they finish cleaning house, they'll double in size. Many --MANY-- former members like myself want to join again, but not while there's still a whiff of the corruption that WLP represents.
The executive leadership and bylaws were engineered to serve 1 man: WLP. There needs to be a change to the roles of the national board and the executive VP. WLP wore too many hats and too many people deferred to him rather than fight the whole organization. Smarter people than me will have to figure out how to fix this mess.
I joined GOA for their aggressive 2A advocacy. An NRA trainer said to me the NRA historically was about gun safety and training and suggested joining GOA for no compromise advocacy since that was never what the NRA was about. Lately, it seems the NRA has been the group making grand gestures on the advocacy and constitutional rights fight.
The NRA should NOT be destroyed. We need them. They are the largest gun rights organization in the country and when they finish cleaning house, they'll double in size. Many --MANY-- former members like myself want to join again, but not while there's still a whiff of the corruption that WLP represents.
The executive leadership and bylaws were engineered to serve 1 man: WLP. There needs to be a change to the roles of the national board and the executive VP. WLP wore too many hats and too many people deferred to him rather than fight the whole organization. Smarter people than me will have to figure out how to fix this mess.
I joined GOA for their aggressive 2A advocacy. An NRA trainer said to me the NRA historically was about gun safety and training and suggested joining GOA for no compromise advocacy since that was never what the NRA was about. Lately, it seems the NRA has been the group making grand gestures on the advocacy and constitutional rights fight.
FoghornLeghorn
New member
Here is a post by a current NRA board member made on 1/5/24.
[begin quote]
Still sitting in Dallas as I type this. Just want you to get the lay of the land... The NRA BOD meetings have a no phone or computer policy. Your phone has to be locked into some sort of electronic blocking case - and as you exit the room you can hand your phone over to be unlocked. There were 58 or 59 of the 76 BOD members in attendance.
Wayne LaPiere tendered his resignation in executive (closed door, confidential to the board) session about 10 am. He stated that it would be effective on 1/31/24
As I sat there wondering what I was going to do with the info, while knowing it was a secret that could not leave the room until the NRA made it public, and knowing that it was too juicy to not get out...
I heard and saw the shock in the faces of many board members, and saw the grief in the reactions of others. Some of these folks have been friends with Wayne for 20+ years, while others looked up to and grew up with Wayne. My views are that no matter your opinion of Wayne, he did some really good stuff over the years. And the various law suits are taking their tole on him. He looks worn out and not healthy.
Executive session was paused while we took a lunch break (12:50 pm) and within 10 minutes my phone was blowing up. Saw the FOX news report as the first official news report. From there I could respond with the report and the public info that was shared.
Lets pause here and get the lay of the land.
is
NRA facing the BIG lawsuit that starts monday the 8th. A public search will give you the background on this for those looking for details, but not only is Leticia James and NY going after the NRA, they sued 4 persons personally. Those four were instrumental in running the offices of the NRA. Wayne, John Frasier, Josh Powell and Woody Phillips.
Wayne resigning does not impact his involvement in the lawsuits because he is staying on till 1/31/24 and so will still be EVP during all this. AND he is still personally named.
Josh Powell just settled (think it came out publicly on 1/5/24) with NY and so is out of the mix. Since he had been terminated by NRA he was on his own for legal bills. Search and you will find his details of settlement. May I suggest the blog of John Richardson at OnlyGunsAndMoney he has been an NRA watcher for years.
Now lets go to what happens next. Did you see the news that Joe DeBergelis (spelling??) was terminated about 3 weeks ago. Its in play too. He ran the operations of the org under Wayne. And based on the money being poured into the lawsuits - to protect the NRA, doing it on a skeleton crews and drastically slashed budget. Remember, NY's goal is to take down and end the largest 2A organization in the US. The NRA is somewhere around 300 times the size of the next largest organization in the USA.
The NRA does not have a lot of depth of crew right now. With COVID reductions, then the lawsuit stacked on top of that - who wants to be there, who was replaced when someone left ( and did they have the budget for it?) You each hear not one more dollar statements, those have had an impact, probably not the impact each was looking for, but an impact none the less.
So Joe DeBergelis's replacement is Andrew Arulanandam who had been the communications guy. He has been with the NRA for quite a while.
To understand Andrew's place in this - he was the connection between the PR firm Ackerman McQueen and the NRA. He released statements, approved who could speak for the NRA, insured a unified and directed statement for things when things get ugly. Remember, when something happens, they want a tight, thoughful and consise public statement that will give the world an idea where the NRA is going, whats going to happen and how the NRA will continue to support their 2A rights.
Andrew A has been learning Joe's position for the past three weeks, then this bombshell happens. Many knew Wayne would leave at some point. He is of a certain age, this has been ugly and hard for he and Susan, etc. But no one knew it would be now. I am extremely certain that the Executive Board did not know... till it happened.
Per the Bylaws, Andrew in his new position, will roll up to fill Waynes position as of 1/31
He will continue to do that until the next Board meeting which will take place in May at the annual meeting in Dallas.
From there the Board has to make a decision of what's next. At this time, no one has an idea of what's next, we know the actions to take, but not timing, or candidates, or etc... Much up in the air.
Now - back to the fact that in that 2 hours that the board was enclosed in executive session with thier phones in lock down. Andrew and his crew did a stellar job of putting out a press release, getting the story out in the way THEY wanted it out, and controlling the narative in a time when rumors and opinions run rampant. THIS shows leadership, and something that I personally have not seen for a while ( since the time that NY went after NRA, and Ack Mc splintered away and many wondered what their new roles were)
So for a bit - I think the NRA is in hands that will try to sort things out, handle things as they come up and help guide the ship through the lawsuit waters. Once we come out the other side, we will start to gather all the deck chairs and see what we have to work with.
[end quote]
https://www.rugerforum.com/threads/nra-bod-happenings-1-5-24.312072/
[begin quote]
Still sitting in Dallas as I type this. Just want you to get the lay of the land... The NRA BOD meetings have a no phone or computer policy. Your phone has to be locked into some sort of electronic blocking case - and as you exit the room you can hand your phone over to be unlocked. There were 58 or 59 of the 76 BOD members in attendance.
Wayne LaPiere tendered his resignation in executive (closed door, confidential to the board) session about 10 am. He stated that it would be effective on 1/31/24
As I sat there wondering what I was going to do with the info, while knowing it was a secret that could not leave the room until the NRA made it public, and knowing that it was too juicy to not get out...
I heard and saw the shock in the faces of many board members, and saw the grief in the reactions of others. Some of these folks have been friends with Wayne for 20+ years, while others looked up to and grew up with Wayne. My views are that no matter your opinion of Wayne, he did some really good stuff over the years. And the various law suits are taking their tole on him. He looks worn out and not healthy.
Executive session was paused while we took a lunch break (12:50 pm) and within 10 minutes my phone was blowing up. Saw the FOX news report as the first official news report. From there I could respond with the report and the public info that was shared.
Lets pause here and get the lay of the land.
is
NRA facing the BIG lawsuit that starts monday the 8th. A public search will give you the background on this for those looking for details, but not only is Leticia James and NY going after the NRA, they sued 4 persons personally. Those four were instrumental in running the offices of the NRA. Wayne, John Frasier, Josh Powell and Woody Phillips.
Wayne resigning does not impact his involvement in the lawsuits because he is staying on till 1/31/24 and so will still be EVP during all this. AND he is still personally named.
Josh Powell just settled (think it came out publicly on 1/5/24) with NY and so is out of the mix. Since he had been terminated by NRA he was on his own for legal bills. Search and you will find his details of settlement. May I suggest the blog of John Richardson at OnlyGunsAndMoney he has been an NRA watcher for years.
Now lets go to what happens next. Did you see the news that Joe DeBergelis (spelling??) was terminated about 3 weeks ago. Its in play too. He ran the operations of the org under Wayne. And based on the money being poured into the lawsuits - to protect the NRA, doing it on a skeleton crews and drastically slashed budget. Remember, NY's goal is to take down and end the largest 2A organization in the US. The NRA is somewhere around 300 times the size of the next largest organization in the USA.
The NRA does not have a lot of depth of crew right now. With COVID reductions, then the lawsuit stacked on top of that - who wants to be there, who was replaced when someone left ( and did they have the budget for it?) You each hear not one more dollar statements, those have had an impact, probably not the impact each was looking for, but an impact none the less.
So Joe DeBergelis's replacement is Andrew Arulanandam who had been the communications guy. He has been with the NRA for quite a while.
To understand Andrew's place in this - he was the connection between the PR firm Ackerman McQueen and the NRA. He released statements, approved who could speak for the NRA, insured a unified and directed statement for things when things get ugly. Remember, when something happens, they want a tight, thoughful and consise public statement that will give the world an idea where the NRA is going, whats going to happen and how the NRA will continue to support their 2A rights.
Andrew A has been learning Joe's position for the past three weeks, then this bombshell happens. Many knew Wayne would leave at some point. He is of a certain age, this has been ugly and hard for he and Susan, etc. But no one knew it would be now. I am extremely certain that the Executive Board did not know... till it happened.
Per the Bylaws, Andrew in his new position, will roll up to fill Waynes position as of 1/31
He will continue to do that until the next Board meeting which will take place in May at the annual meeting in Dallas.
From there the Board has to make a decision of what's next. At this time, no one has an idea of what's next, we know the actions to take, but not timing, or candidates, or etc... Much up in the air.
Now - back to the fact that in that 2 hours that the board was enclosed in executive session with thier phones in lock down. Andrew and his crew did a stellar job of putting out a press release, getting the story out in the way THEY wanted it out, and controlling the narative in a time when rumors and opinions run rampant. THIS shows leadership, and something that I personally have not seen for a while ( since the time that NY went after NRA, and Ack Mc splintered away and many wondered what their new roles were)
So for a bit - I think the NRA is in hands that will try to sort things out, handle things as they come up and help guide the ship through the lawsuit waters. Once we come out the other side, we will start to gather all the deck chairs and see what we have to work with.
[end quote]
https://www.rugerforum.com/threads/nra-bod-happenings-1-5-24.312072/
Aguila Blanca
Staff
I saw that memo from an unidentified board member somewhere previously. To me, it reads like something written by a LaPierre sympathizer, if not advocate. The only thing it says that makes sense is that "From there the Board has to make a decision of what's next."
If any of them actually have the good of the organization at heart, the best thing they could do would be to all resign and let the next board election start from a clean slate. But they won't do that.
They should also rescind the recent changes to the by-laws, and reset to where the by-laws were 10 (?) years ago -- before they were changed to lock the membership completely out of having any control over their own organization. But they won't do that, either.
If any of them actually have the good of the organization at heart, the best thing they could do would be to all resign and let the next board election start from a clean slate. But they won't do that.
They should also rescind the recent changes to the by-laws, and reset to where the by-laws were 10 (?) years ago -- before they were changed to lock the membership completely out of having any control over their own organization. But they won't do that, either.
FoghornLeghorn
New member
They're like every USA politician extant, viz. they'll facilitate the collapse of the very organization (to which they've been entrusted) rather than do the ethical thing.
Rex Rugged
New member
I was a lifetime member but I'll have nothing to do with them now. When I needed their help they refused and asked for more money. That failed to meet my expectations.
.Bold action will be required to restore faith in the NRA. WLP's transgressions are too deep, and this board really did nothing about it. I personally think Oliver North is a weasel, but he was right about this.
A 76 person board means it's worthless. No one's responsible and the staff get to do what they want. Combine that with fat consulting contracts, and the board will not act appropriately.
The only hope the NRA has for the future is to make major fundamental changes.
A 76 person board means it's worthless. No one's responsible and the staff get to do what they want. Combine that with fat consulting contracts, and the board will not act appropriately.
The only hope the NRA has for the future is to make major fundamental changes.
As a Canadian, the NRA has never interested me at all.
Their top 10 executives all earn million dollar plus salaries each year and the NrA is supposed to be a non profit group/agency? Too funny.