It seems like I’ve been waiting for this forever. Since my 20’s I have been a virulent anti NRA advocate. And you have all been able to read my articles as I followed the ebb and flow of the battle to bring the NRA back down to size. Now it appears that we may finally be approaching the end game for the sad saga of the NRA.
Just a quick recap to get everybody on the same page. The National Rifle Association was chartered as a Non Profit Organization in New York state in 1871. Over the decades it became the most powerful special interest lobbying group in the United States. It single handedly made it possible for mass shootings in the United States to take place on an almost daily bases.
But, as with so many other organizations that rose to such lofty positions of power and influence, rampant corruption set in. When NRA longtime overlord Wayne LaPierre moved to try to oust the organizations new President, Oliver North for being a pain in the ass, the proverbial shit hit the fan. North moved to sue the NRA’s executive committee, and as a result of discovery from that lawsuit, internal documents started to flow out into the public.
Which was the snowball rolled down the side of the mountain. The documents showed a shocking, decades long pattern of internal personal corruption, led by LaPierre. New York State Attorney General Letitia James issued sweeping subpoenas for documentation, and opened a case to file for the dissolution of the NRA as a corrupt organization. Since the NRA is chartered in New York State, it is governed by New York State law, and can be disbanded by judicial order.
Pepe LaPierre thought that he had found an emergency chute to save his and his corrupt organization’s scalp. The NRA decided to file for dissolution under federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws, after which they would simply go down to Texas and file new Articles of Incorporation as a Non Profit Organization in a state where the government was less likely to give them a ration of shit for being robber barons.
Except no. In a scathing ruling today from a federal court judge in Texas, he stripped the NRA bare, and left them twisting in the wind. In a scathing written ruling, the judge exposed the suit for exactly what it was, a lame attempt to use federal bankruptcy laws to shield their own corrupt conduct. In no uncertain terms, he ruled that the cover up of corrupt personal behavior was not what federal bankruptcy law was for. And then he threw the bankruptcy suit out of court!
The NRA is Leticia James’ little puppy now. The federal judge in Texas was careful to say that he could not rule or opine on whether or not James could disband the NRA, only that the NRA could not use federal bankruptcy laws to circumvent their day in the New York courts.
Anti NRA groups across the country are busy taking world class victory laps, and I’m right there with every one of them. One even mocked the NRA in a statement by saying that the NRA can’t even file for bankruptcy right. The ball is now in Attorney General James’s court. But from where I’m sitting, you don’t take the step to voluntarily dissolve your NPO if you don’t think the other side can do you in. Don’t touch that dial!
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
I never thought I’d be on the side of Olie North.
Listening to Wayne squirm in court was satisfying. “So you accepted the gift of $275,000 in suits from this Beverly Hills boutique.” “No, uh, not a gift…those were work uniforms, it was a work wardrobe…”
I’m not sure if it’s more satisfying to see him in court, or Rick Snyder. I think for me it’s Snyder, even though overall the NRA creates more death and destruction. Well…I guess it’s both…we have plenty of prison space, so I’m going to vote both, with room for more to come.
I remember before they got political, which was in the 70s and 80s. They were hunters, competition shooters, plinkers, and collectors of antique firearms. (My father was a member. I read the magazine as a kid.) They sponsored safety classes, not rallies against safety laws.
Yes, your right all my grand children went to safety classes when they were 12 so they could hunt. We did too because they had changed and they were great. Then I started seeing the change and quit. But I’m still in the belief that everybody who buy a gun should take a safety course. It will saves lives if you learn how to handle one first
I’m still trying to work out how the National RIFLE Association is able to cover concealed hand guns which by no stretch of the imagination are ‘rifles’ in the normal meaning of the word and don’t exactly equate with the oft misquoted second amendment about “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State””
Isn’t the National Guard the ‘militia’ and I don’t think they carry conceled pistols as part of their standard equipment
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of child murderers,(8 daily to gun violence).
TY MURPH .. sharing.. and I send some of yours out via tweet too.. since I got restarted when JAck et al realized slamming Trump was not really stupid .. but sane. But just realized he set my account so I could read and retweet but only TO MY FOLLOWERS.. need more of those. I mostly just tweet out your things and Seth and LGBTQ some Axios some COVID stuff as I am MD. .. so if other Zoomers want to help spread these posts PLEASE follow me and then RESHARE my shares to your followers.