NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre is resigning.
For a more toxic views see:
- NRA chief Wayne LaPierre resigns days before civil corruption trial – ABC News
- NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre to Step Down Before Civil Corruption Trial (Walls Street Journal via msn.com)
- NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre steps down amid corruption charges (Politico via msn.com)
- NRA Executive Wayne LaPierre survived years of criticism. Now he’s stepping down. (USA Today via msn.com)
From the Wall Street Journal article:
LaPierre and the NRA have said the group has embarked on a major “course correction” by terminating certain vendors, promoting a whistleblower to its top financial job and eliminating virtually all related-party transactions with board members. Since the New York investigation began, LaPierre has repaid the NRA nearly $1 million for some of the private-jet flights, gifts and other “excess benefits” he received, legal filings show.
It is probably was far short of the compensation he and many others should have given but it is worth something. Perhaps the organization can rebuild itself with a better focus on the important principles.
Via text from Mike B.:
Rats leaving the burning ship?
WLP was a problem but he wasn’t the only problem. The interim director has been described as an acolyte of their scumbag lawyer. I will wait and see what happens with the permanent position and the board. But it is a start.
We need the NRA. While other organization have stepped up on on the legal and political front. The vast infrastructure of training and local activities have not been replicated. And even on the political front, the new organizations don’t have the clout and recognition of the NRA.
So it is time to put pressure on the board to appoint a permanent director that is both honest and respected in the firearms community. Some structural reform of the board itself is needed. Start by shrinking the number of board members.
Reduce the BOD by 2/3 and get rid of the Friends of Wayne faction.
It will still take years to get the NRA back on track.
How do board members get their position? Appointment by previous members (like Harvard does it)? Election by the membership?
Nominated by membership and elected by membership by mail.
However the current BOD and EVP pick and publicize who the want elected to the board. So unless you are a member of The Friends Of Wayne, your nomination does not mean much.
There are 76 members on the BOD. The average number of board member on a non-profit is 16.
When a board has more than 10, you can expect the BOD to not be very responsive to problems. Too much dilution of responsibility.
Six to eight is normal for a medium size corporation.
The NRA has over 70, with the intent that you will NEVER get anything done that matters, as you can consider it to be the equivalent of herding cats.
They are already bankrupt. They need to sale the whole organization, lock, stock, barrel, and name, to Joe Huffman for a dollar. And let him play king for a couple/ 20 years.
It reminds me of a meme/joke from years ago. Shows this shady guy standing in the bosses office, with the boss who has a surprised look on his face. Outside you see a bunch people being murdered at there desks.
And the caption reads;
Well, you hired us to streamline your operation, didn’t you?
Membership and secretaries are about all you could keep.
There has always been a 100 million gun owners or better in this country. And the gun control fight has been going on since the 1930’s.
And all the NRA ever got was what 4, maybe 5 million members at their peak?
And out of the whole herd of lawyers and lobbyists no one ever figured out what “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” means?
All we get today is, kind’da, maybe, if you get a license we might let you? We don’t want to be seen as radical gun-nuts you know.
I predict under Huffman leadership they could be 50 times the organization they are today!
It’s a good start. I don’t care who holds the reins as long as they get back to the to the business of representing gun owners and holding politicians accountable.
“… as long as they get back to the to the business of representing gun owners and holding politicians accountable.”
The problem is that this has NEVER been their focus.
They were set up to assist the government. One of their original focus areas was to support gun control. You will find their grubby fingerprints all over every attempt to restrict guns since they were founded. They are masters at giving in to any and all restraints that are constructed, looking strong until the last minute, and afterwards one finds that they helped write the anti-gun position of the government. NFA, GCA’68, MG86, etc, etc. They can be considered to be one of our worst enemies for over a century, because it was stealthy, hiding behind a friendly facade.