America's largest gun rights group, the National Rifle Association, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and will leave New York for Texas. Reuters. The NRA says this move will be used to escape the regulatory environment in New York. The NRA was sued by the state in what they say was a political move, but the NRA was accused of wasting donor funds on the luxury lifestyle of NRA executives. The NRA said that there would be no changes in their operations for the time being and that the group was still financially solvent. New York was seeking the dissolution of the NRA but the move will likely prevent New York from doing so as it would render their lawsuit against the NRA moot.
My Comment:
Just a quick disclosure, I have donated a small amount of money to the NRA via the Amazon Smile program. The money is not significant but I figured it was worth noting. The NRA has a lot of problems but I loved the idea of forcing Amazon to give money to the NRA, plus there was a small chance that the NRA would use the money for good things.
I have conflicted feelings about the NRA these days. I do think that the State of New York has a point. The NRA is poorly run and I do think the leadership care more about making themselves rich then they do actually fighting for the cause of gun rights. The best thing that could happen is that Wayne LaPierre and many of the other higher ups were fired and replaced.
That being said, I don't believe for a second that the state of New York was honest in what they were trying to do. The NRA has obvious and serious problems but it was never about protecting the donors to the NRA. It was about destroying the biggest gun rights group in the world. Thankfully it looks like their plot has failed.
The NRA has some major problems, not the least of which is that they don't defend gun rights enough. Unlike the 2nd Amendment Foundation or the Gun Owners of America groups, the NRA often compromises on gun rights. Most notably they did not push back against the Trump administration when he banned bump stocks in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting.
They have also focused too much on being a conservative group, not a gun rights one, and have often been distracted from the cause by irrelevant political issues. This has been bad for gun rights as there are a few centrist, libertarian and even leftist gun rights supporters. Many of them were turned off from the NRA when they realized that the group was more about funding Republicans than actually fighting for gun rights. Gun rights should be a bipartisan issue, especially now after 2020 convinced thousands of new people that guns are valuable and necessary.
But I also think that the NRA is necessary. Though they have not been effective in protecting gun rights they do have real power. An NRA endorsement during a primary can mean the difference between an anti-gun or a pro-gun candidate. And they also provide a massive amount of training, publicity and insurance for the gun industry that are not easily replaced. Many gun ranges only exist due to NRA insurance and in many states the entire idea of gun ranges would die if the NRA were to fold.
I am not sure that moving to Texas is the best idea. It's a red state but it's not as solid red as it was in the past. And they don't have the best laws in the country, even my state, Wisconsin, has better laws. I think that the NRA is obviously safer there than in New York but it's not guaranteed that will continue in the future. I would have been happier if they had gone to a deep red state like Kansas or Alaska.
I am sure that moving the NRA's headquarters will not fix many of the problems that the NRA has. Moving won't change the leadership and it won't change the toxic culture in the NRA. It will allow the organization to survive but that's about it.
The chaos at the NRA comes at the worst possible time. If the Biden administration actually happens (which looks likely) then the gun rights community will face it's biggest threat ever. Biden is horrifically anti-gun and has said that Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke will be his anti-gun czar. Not only do we need a strong gun rights group to counter that, it's probably the last best hope for the country to avoid civil war as no other issue is more of a tinderbox then gun rights. Too bad the NRA doesn't appear to be up to the challenge.
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