National Rifle Association (NRA) members have said the Second Amendment advocacy group has been ripe for new leadership for the past several years.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and current and former top NRA executives are squaring off in a civil corruption trial that began in a New York City courtroom on Jan. 8.
The court will hear Ms. James’s claims that Wayne LaPierre, the longtime CEO and the group’s public face, and former NRA officials Wilson Phillips and John Frazer allegedly misused NRA funds to pay for personal expenses, including travel on private jets; overpaid favored vendors; and oversaw the steady financial decline of the nonprofit.
In the past week, Mr. LaPierre resigned, and former executive director of operations and chief of staff for Mr. LaPierre, Joshua Powell, settled his case.
“Joshua Powell’s admission of wrongdoing and Wayne LaPierre’s resignation confirm what we have alleged for years: the NRA and its senior leaders are financially corrupt,” Ms. James wrote in a Jan. 5 statement.
Second Amendment supporters told The Epoch Times they aren’t surprised that the organization is in trouble.
“The NRA got too big business, too corporate,“ said Miles Gooding, a police evidence technician from Bryan County, Oklahoma. ”To me, the NRA lost its way.”
Mr. Gooding has been an NRA member for more than 20 years, becoming a life member less than five years ago. He said his disenchantment with the NRA began when he heard that the group didn’t help Kyle Rittenhouse.
Mr. Rittenhouse was charged in August 2020 with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder after he shot three men in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A jury acquitted the teenager on all charges in November 2021, finding that the shooting during civil unrest was in self-defense.
Mr. Gooding saw the non-involvement as a failure of leadership.
“I think [Mr. LaPierre] lost his way on that. I think he forgot who he represents,” Mr. Gooding told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Gooding said he attended two national meetings and felt that Mr. LaPierre was aloof and arrogant, talking down to the membership.
“That tells me something,” he said.
Connor Alford agrees. He’s a former NRA member and the county coordinator for the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association, which isn’t affiliated with the NRA. He said the NRA has been taking a lower profile in the public debate on the Second Amendment, which has driven its members to state-level groups like his.
In addition to sitting out the Rittenhouse issue, Mr. Alford said the NRA discouraged taking any action in the District of Columbia v. Heller case, which affirmed that the right to bear arms is an individual right.
It also discouraged taking any action in the McDonald v. City of Chicago case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that that right was enforceable against the states.
Mr. Alford said the NRA has come to be viewed by many as “a group of angry white men.”
“I don’t think the NRA has been very good at portraying itself in a nuanced and interesting way,” he told The Epoch Times.
Online comments after Mr. LaPierre’s resignation was announced reflected similar sentiments. Many commenters who identified themselves as NRA members said they were glad that Mr. LaPierre is stepping down, effective Jan. 31. Many said it would be a chance for the NRA to retool and come back stronger under better leadership.
“Under LaPierre, the NRA become little more than a fundraising outfit and did practically nothing to make the arguments in public for their positions,” one commenter identified as David Lewis wrote in response to an Epoch Times story.
“If a liberal helped oust him, they may not have really understood what they just did.”
Mr. Alford said he wasn’t surprised at the allegations by Ms. James. He pointed out that many large nonprofit organizations are accused of misusing donations. He said groups as diverse as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have faced similar charges in the past.
Charges Not Unique to NRA
In his settlement, Mr. Powell admitted to “using the NRA’s charitable assets for his own benefit and the benefit of his family.” He also agreed to pay $100,000 in restitution, to not serve as an officer in a nonprofit or charitable organization, and to testify against the NRA if called upon.Mr. Powell left the NRA in 2019, accused of sexual harassment. The following year, he wrote a tell-all book, “Inside the NRA.”
In the account, he denies the sexual harassment allegations and portrays himself as the sole voice of reason in an organization beset by greed, turf wars, and incompetence overseen by Mr. LaPierre, who he claims had a laissez-faire management style.
The summons filed by Ms. James alleges the NRA ended 2015 with a surplus of $27.8 million. In the three years that followed, that steadily declined until the organization ended 2018 with a $36.2 million deficit.
NRA officials didn’t respond by press time to emails from The Epoch Times seeking comment.
