National At the N.R.A., a Cash Machine Sputtering

[oneharmonic]

At the N.R.A., a Cash Machine Sputtering

After reading this, clearly I'm in the wrong business. Working FOR the NRA sounds like a much better proposition than donating TO the NRA.

$1.5 million executive salaries
$3+ million retirement payouts
$250,000 shopping sprees
$100,000/day in legal fees
$40 million a year to run NRATV
$25 million a year in transfers from the NRA Foundation to prop up the NRA Organization

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[NW Backpacker]

Exec salaries are a tad high, but not overly excessive for a large organization. Ditto retirement payouts. $250K shopping spree occurred over 13 years, and we don't know who the clothing was for - maybe only Wayne, maybe also some of his underlings - just a guess. $100K/day in legal fees - what is that for? If it's for opposing anti-gun measures like IP43, and I1639 that's good. It may be for defense of the NRA from the NY and US goobermints, banks, and other businesses - they are attacking them on several fronts and lawyers do not come cheap so it may not be unreasonable. Sounds like NRA TV is a waste of money - should probably get rid of it.

These are the most important paragraphs of the article, and the ones we need to be most concerned with:

[Opponents see opportunity.

"Each day, there's a new drip, drip, drip," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group. "The N.R.A. is not a gun advocacy organization but a business that has been engaged in self-dealing, awarding contracts with little accountability to their friends, and it seems like a business run amok. It's questionable whether they can play in 2020 the way they have in the past."

Such groups showed unusual financial strength in the recent midterm elections. Take Nevada. For years, there had been a push to close loopholes in background checks related to private gun sales, culminating in a successful 2016 ballot initiative. Adam Laxalt, then the state's Republican attorney general, appeared in a commercial opposing the measure, and was criticized when he later helped block it from going into effect.

When Mr. Laxalt ran for governor last year, he had the N.R.A.'s endorsement and A+ rating, and was fiercely opposed by gun control groups. He lost to Steve Sisolak, a Democrat who in February signed background check legislation into law.

"That is Exhibit 1 of their diminishing power, and their inability to do what they used to do," Mr. Feinblatt said.

Mr. Rathner, the lobbyist and longtime N.R.A. board member, sees it differently. The organization's members, he said, pay their dues "to protect them from anti-gun legislation and anti-gun policies, and quite frankly, we gave them a president who appointed two good Supreme Court justices and over 100 lower court judges to protect them for a generation or two. And we did that because that's what our members expect us to do."]

Don't let these antis persuade you to abandon the NRA. Keep supporting them and let's call, write, and email every day urging major reform of the leadership. Contact page (mailing address at bottom):
NRA-ILA | Contact NRA-ILA

They are still one of our strongest allies in the fight for gun rights:

NRA-ILA | Home

Oregon:
NRA-ILA | Home
Washington:
NRA-ILA | Home
Idaho:
NRA-ILA | Home

 

[edzz]

Just why is someone with a seven figure salary provided a clothing allowance. Only time I had a clothing allowance was when I was in the military and I still had to dig in my own pocket.

 

[308]

Apparently the NRA does not really NEED our $$ anymore than Kenneth & Gloria Copeland NEED the $$ from 'their' flock

 

[gmerkt]

Sticky fingers abound in a great many supposedly non-profit organizations. I think with the NRA, it's a case of taking the bad with the good. It's the senior national level organization that represents the interests of gun owners. We'd probably be worse off without it. No question it's lost a lot of the clout it used to have. I think given the salaries involved, clothing purchases should rightly be absorbed by the individuals not the organization.