quote:

Not to mention that there is a huge firearms museum at that facility in Fairfax.

Perhaps they can figure a way to leave Wayne resident at the museum while the rest of the body moves to Texas.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Boy what a great Idea... pay Trump 2 mil a year to continue to run his mouth....

There were more gun restrictions (and threats of gun restrictions) levied under Trump's administration than the previous terms of Obama and Bush combined... but that's none of my business. He appointed the head of the ATF and they brought about the bump stock ban, red flag laws, and the threat of having to reclassify our AR pistols as SBRs.

He's no ally, but he has no problem saying anything to keep the base loyal. Even if his actions revealed the opposite.

Although the move to recharter the NRA in Texas is a good thing, I'm not sure how anything with the organization and its leadership will change. How could it? Under its current structure of governance any change is virtually impossible. The 76 member Board of Directors pretty much rubber stamps whatever LaPierre wants. And a nominating committee of LaPierre sycophants has almost ironclad control over who gets on the board. LaPierre, Carolyn Meadows, most of top management and almost everyone on the board, including celebrities, need to go, and I'm not sure how that can happen unless some of them are charged criminally. As it stands now, it's virtually impossible for an outsider to get elected to the board; any current directors who showed a little courage and questioned what was going on were immediately shut out of committee assignments and rendered ineffectual.
Certainly, the IRS is looking at the top brass carefully, and we know that the greed and self-dealing by LaPierre and his cronies is breathtaking in scale. The NRA needs a proper (and much smaller, as is typical with other non-profits and the private sector) and competent BOD, willing to exercise some proper fiduciary responsibility. But again, I don't know how this can ever happen from within.

wAyne is not a leader. He is a liability.

Couple of you guys are probably gonna get this thread locked, for injecting politics in a non-political thread.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Boy what a great Idea... pay Trump 2 mil a year to continue to run his mouth....

Shut your Goddamned mouth. You're always so surprised when you get pinged by me, but this kinda of clueless shit you're doing now is perfectly illustrative of why you've had my foot in your ass before.

Try to understand- you're alienating practically everyone who posts in this forum with this stupid shit remark you posted. Get it? Some members want me to run you out of here.

Don't let me see this kind of thing from you again. As a matter of fact, you will avoid the subject of politics in this forum for all eternity.

Do you think you can get that through your skull so I don't have to bother with this shit again? Don't answer. It's a rhetorical question. I don't want to see you again in this thread.

Troll us again and see what happens.

I went ahead and renewed my membership for 2021. But... Unless Wayne disappears and I start seeing them coming out loud and strong and very public on anything 2A related (especially the "Red Flag" laws) the Dems try to pull off, no more $$$ for me.
I dont know why they have not bailed on NY and VA years ago.

Mrs. Flash and I are Life Members and also Charlton Heston Ambassador Members of the NRA Heritage Society.

Having said that, I'm not at all happy about WLP and agree he has to go.

The NRA, even weakened as it is is the only Pro Gun organization that has the resources and fear from politicians that we need to get things done.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Mrs. Flash and I are Life Members and also Charlton Heston Ambassador Members of the NRA Heritage Society.

Having said that, I'm not at all happy about WLP and agree he has to go.

The NRA, even weakened as it is is the only Pro Gun organization that has the resources and fear from politicians that we need to get things done.

Makes sense. But how long will the NRA maintain such clout with LaPierre at the helm?

Couple stream-of-consciousness things that came to mind:

- I’d happily opt out of the magazine every month. I don’t really bother looking at it anymore. If they insist on keeping that sort of thing around, maybe give me an e-delivery option and just send me a link to a PDF or something?

- I might take individual mailings/emails more seriously if they weren’t so frequent.

- the clout of the NRA is, fundamentally, based on the sheer number of members it has. From the perspective of whether legislators will listen to the NRA or not, it doesn’t matter if they are paying members or not. That only matters for funding the organization’s operations. Still, bankruptcy is a bad look.

- this does seem like a strategic choice, and if it the democrats pretend like they got a win to placate their base, that may not be a bad thing. Chapter 11 isn’t good, but it is something you do if you think you can keep things running after a reset. It isn’t what you choose if you want to wind down and liquidate.

- I have a lifetime membership, but if they canceled it or reduced it to only the next year or two in the bankruptcy, I don’t think I would be all that mad. If doing lifetime memberships was a bad idea, financially, I’m not going to ask them to live with that mistake for the next 30-40 years or however long I live.

- Wayne has been there long enough. I don’t hate the guy, but I don’t think it would hurt to get a new perspective at the top of the ranks.

Ok, brain is empty now!

- Bret

They have keep the VA location because it is close to DC and they are a lobbying organization. The NY AG waged a campaign against the NRA to tie up all of their funds and time in legal battles and prevent them from spending much or saying much in the elections. The AG succeeded in silencing them for this election cycle, so it is imperative that they get out of NY. The bankruptcy will allow a new organization to arise out of the old, similar to how a corporate bankruptcy often results in issuing new stock and the old stock becomes worthless.

I pay my membership dues, partially because I use the NRA's low cost firearms insurance through Lockton.

But I don't give them any more than that because I despise their fund raising tactics. Big envelope with either histrionic claims in boldface or underlined, or boldface AND underlined (who uses underline anymore?), or a stupid sweepstakes. I refuse to give more to an organization that treats me like I am an idiot. Send me a reasoned request using facts, pending legislation, and legal cases, that appeals to my intelligence and provides a compelling case for how they have influenced legislation in our favor and I might give something. But it had better not have any underlined text or bold and underlined text that makes it look like a goddamn Publishers Clearing House mailing.

quote:

Originally posted by rscalzo:
They simply can't pack up one of the most advanced ranges and move it.

There is an effort both at the county level and the Commonwealth level to force the NRA to permanently close the HQ range.

What NRA needs to do is:
1. Complete the Chapter 11 recognized.
2. Move the parts of the operation not involved in legal, lobbying, or museum functions to the Whittington Center in Raton, NM.
3. Keep the legal, lobbying, and museum functions in NOVA, but closer in to DC to make the museum easier to get to via METRO.
4. Open a new range location east of the Mississippi with the capabilities of the Whittington Center.

And get rid of the entire Board and executive staff, starting with Mr. LaPierre.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
I'm betting Wayne is driving this bus. This is a tactical move to avoid the NYS AG crawling into their underwear.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Any move that doesn't include Wayne being replaced is a halfass endeavor at best.

Get rid of that man.

You may well be correct, which begs the question. Is Wayne doing this to promote the NRA's mission? Or to make things better for Wayne.

There's only ever been one answer to that question.

Wayne needs to go.

Pampered, ineffectual, choad, with a ridiculous fucking name to boot.

Go away you embarrassing halfass.

quote:

I’d happily opt out of the magazine every month. I don’t really bother looking at it anymore. If they insist on keeping that sort of thing around, maybe give me an e-delivery option and just send me a link to a PDF or something?

They’ll be happy to email the magazine instead of sending hard copies. I’ve had them doing that with mine for several years. Contact Member Services online.

quote:

4. Open a new range location east of the Mississippi with the capabilities of the Whittington Center.

I like the idea as a general proposition, but let's hold off on that until the war chest has been refilled. Whittington was expensive as all get-out.

As for the range in Virginia, find some silicon twits who wanna save the world by taking a "brownfield dedicated to violence" and turning it into a corporate campus or something. The land will be available cheap again sooner or later. The NRA may need to keep a small office somewhere handy to DC, and I would love to see the museum kept intact, but there's no real reason to have a major presence that close to DC anymore. It's not like Wayne's gonna talk Schumer into a miracle over cocktails or cajole Pelosi into lightening up over at the local dog park.

What does need to happen is a general spring cleaning of the leadership as well as a rededication to recruiting and activism at the grass roots. This is especially true right now since the states will provide the ripest group of opportunities whenever the Dems are in the ascendant in DC.

If they try the “renew your lifetime membership “ stunt, I can’t see many people doing so, so long as WLP is in office. I certainly won’t.

Does WLP speak at the NRA convention? Maybe if he gets boo’d off the stage/shouted down, he good get embarrassed enough to be retire.

That being the case does anyone know the answer to the following question:

I assume that the current board are all WLP promoted lackies. They will support him no matter what. How are potential board members nominated and elected? Would it be technically and practically/politically possible for the membership, or some fraction thereof, to nominate a new slate of directors against the will of the current board and WLP (assuming those are the same thing), and get it elected?

If the answer to that question is no, then the NRA is a total loss situation. WLP will ride it into oblivion in Strangelovian fashion.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
I'm betting Wayne is driving this bus. This is a tactical move to avoid the NYS AG crawling into their underwear.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Any move that doesn't include Wayne being replaced is a halfass endeavor at best.

Get rid of that man.

You may well be correct, which begs the question. Is Wayne doing this to promote the NRA's mission? Or to make things better for Wayne.

There's only ever been one answer to that question.

Wayne needs to go.

Pampered, ineffectual, choad, with a ridiculous fucking name to boot.

Go away you embarrassing halfass.

I don't see how any change to the NRA can be effected from within. There are 76 members on the Board of Directors. (In the private sector AND in non-profits, boards usually number about 15 members.) 1/3 are elected each year to a 3 year term (with no term limits) plus 1 elected to a 1 year term to round out the slate. Virtually all of them are placed for election by a nominating committee composed of LaPierre loyalists. It is possible for an outsider to be nominated through a grassroots petition process, but the deck is stacked to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible. A 3/4 vote by the "Executive Committee" is required to remove an officer or executive. This committee is also fiercely loyal to Wayne. The few board members who more recently raised issue with what was going on were quickly relieved of committee assignments for disloyalty. Several board members have resigned, either due to frustration because they could have no real role in governance, or more likely because they knew they could be drawn into litigation due to their fiduciary responsibility as a board member.. It's all sad because we need the clout of a healthy NRA now probably more than ever. I just don't see how anything will change. For starters, LaPierre needs to be gone, along with his supporters on the board. The Board then needs to be reduced to a workable number who will exercise some semblance of governance and see that the /executive Vice President answers to them, rather than the other way around. Then a thorough audit and review of the bylaws need to follow to insure that the right internal controls are in pkace and are followed

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:

quote:

4. Open a new range location east of the Mississippi with the capabilities of the Whittington Center.

I like the idea as a general proposition, but let's hold off on that until the war chest has been refilled. Whittington was expensive as all get-out.

As for the range in Virginia, find some silicon twits who wanna save the world by taking a "brownfield dedicated to violence" and turning it into a corporate campus or something. The land will be available cheap again sooner or later. The NRA may need to keep a small office somewhere handy to DC, and I would love to see the museum kept intact, but there's no real reason to have a major presence that close to DC anymore. It's not like Wayne's gonna talk Schumer into a miracle over cocktails or cajole Pelosi into lightening up over at the local dog park.

What does need to happen is a general spring cleaning of the leadership as well as a rededication to recruiting and activism at the grass roots. This is especially true right now since the states will provide the ripest group of opportunities whenever the Dems are in the ascendant in DC.

That land is never going to be cheap. Never. I used to live across the street from it and shot there all the time. And the NRA does have a sort of secret office next to the Capitol South Metro station. That's where the real federal lobbyists cool their heels. I've seen WLP walking out of it while I was in the restaurant nextdoor to it. It was long ago, but I'm pretty sure it's still there and the NRA's name does not appear on the bldg directory.