Ahead of NRA’s Annual Meeting, Everytown Unveils New Report Detailing Year of Extensive Legal Woes and Mismanagement

Report is the Most Thorough Accounting of the Mismanagement and Chaos that has Consumed the NRA for the Past Year

NRA Holds Annual Meeting on Saturday in Charlotte, NC With Election of New President

NEW YORK – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund released a new report, “Broken and Bankrupt: The NRA in 2021,” detailing the chaos and mismanagement at the National Rifle Association over the previous year, as it continues to face several lawsuits, investigations, and personal embarrassments. Within the last week, an NRA board member announced they were seeking to intervene in the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit against the organization, just the latest in the continued internal chaos. While the power and influence the NRA has built will take years to dissipate fully, the bottom line is clear: the past year has been a disaster for the NRA, and for CEO Wayne LaPierre in particular. 

Just this year, NRA leaders were forced to reveal in bankruptcy proceedings the depths of their mismanagement and incompetence, spent millions just to lose control of both the White House and Congress, and found themselves at odds with the public at every turn as they pushed an extremist agenda. Everytown experts are available to discuss the state of play for the NRA in advance of the rescheduled NRA annual meeting of members in Charlotte, NC this Saturday. 

“The fact that Wayne La Pierre, who’s been spending almost as much time in court hearings as Judge Judy, will be leading the proceedings at NRA’s annual meeting says everything you need to know about whether this organization cares more about representing its members or enriching its executives,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.  “It doesn’t take a lawyer to know that more trials means more legal risk and turmoil — and by that metric alone, the NRA’s coming year might be even worse than the last one.”

“Stopping the NRA has always been a top priority for us, and increasingly it looks like that might be a top priority for NRA executives too,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “While we helped shine a light on the non-profit’s misdeeds, the NRA’s legal and financial woes are entirely of their own making, and from their failed bankruptcy to their refusal to clean house, they seem keen on doing everything they can to make things worse.”

Today’s report is the most thorough accounting of the mismanagement and chaos that has consumed the NRA for the past year, including: 

• Wayne LaPierre’s Mismanagement: Thanks to the failed bankruptcy, the world learned about LaPierre’s unsteady leadership. Board members testified that his management was a “trainwreck” and that the NRA “essentially operated as a kingdom rather than a corporation.” We also learned that LaPierre’s extensive private jet travel allegedly costs over $10 million and his trips on private yachts were paid for by a Hollywood producer who is reportedly a stakeholder in multiple NRA vendors. 
• Lawsuits and Next Steps: The NRA would be hard to find itself in a worse position than it is in now legally. The NY AG is seeking, among other remedies, dissolution of the NRA and amended its complaint this August to add revelations of wrongdoing from the failed bankruptcy. In essence, the NRA took a bad situation and made it worse. 
  • Additionally, the NRA still faces a massive legal battle with its former public relations vendor Ackerman McQueen, with a trial likely in early 2022. 
• NRA Extremist Double Down: The NRA has for decades embraced extremist rhetoric and this year it reached new heights. With the pandemic, the NRA went back to its usual playbook: aggravate fears and then offer guns as the solution. NRA Second Vice President Willes Lee openly said that during COVID-19, “You need a firearm to protect from the criminals that Dem[ocrats] are releasing.” Additionally, as the NRA embraced other tenets of far-right extremism, in early January, LaPierre sent a letter to members warning of “armed government agents storming your house, taking your guns, and hauling you off to prison” adding that “only the NRA has the strength to win knock-down brawls on Capitol Hill.”
• NRA Financial Turmoil: Perhaps most concerning for the executives of the NRA is the fact that the organization is in financial turmoil. Revenue at the NRA was down more than $57 million in 2019, and reports from 2020 show that revenue is tracking even lower. At the same time, the NRA is spending record dollars on legal fees – the bankruptcy allegedly costing tens of millions alone – with the NRA reportedly on track to spend $40 million this year alone on lawyers.

Everytown has chronicled the NRA’s various legal woes at NRAWatch.org. For further information about the state of play for the NRA, please email [email protected].