Attendees at an annual meeting of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Maryland on February 27, 2020.JOSHUA ROBERTS / Reuters
Gone is the powerful image of the legendary Hollywood actor Charlton Heston raising an 1886 Winchester with one hand above his head. "I will hand over my weapons when they are taken from my cold dead hands," he proclaimed.
And he repeated, entrenched in the right to bear arms granted by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution: "From my cold dead hands."
It was in the early 21st century.
Heston left the presidency of the National Rifle Association (NRA) - due to senile dementia - when it was omnipotent.
Today, the NRA is in a decline that can be hit to death by internal power struggles, lavish spending by its executives and accusations of fraud.
Both your reputation and your finances are watering.
In the words of Frank Smyth, journalist and author of
The NRA, The Unauthorized History
, "the organization has never been as weak as it is now."
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In conversation with EL PAÍS, Smyth considers that the pressure group is facing "a moment of great instability" and assures that the board of directors "is terrified" at the idea that the executive director of the organization, Wayne LaPierre, leaves his position and there is "a fierce fight" for who remains in power.
LaPierre is defined in newspaper articles and books - and Smyth corroborates this - as a weak man who, nevertheless, speaks of himself in the third person; a leader of the organization despite not having much interest in weapons, by his own admission. Yet the 71-year-old LaPierre has taken the membership count since he took over the group in 1991 to five million, raised tons of money, and set the NRA's name in stone as the visible face of the lobby. arms in the United States, a pressure group in Washington that none of the Democratic presidents like Clinton or Obama and now Biden have been able to defeat, despite the 20,000 deaths caused by weapons last year. Its partners pay fees that range from $ 45 per year, although it varies according to the States, and 150 for a period of five years,in addition to receiving numerous donations. There are more than 400 million weapons in a country of 330 million people.
At the end of the organization, a date has been set in court.
For the first time in its almost 150 years of existence, someone dared to question the untouchable NRA.
In August 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the largest and most powerful pro-arms group in the United States, with the ultimate goal of dissolving the association, for “years of irregularities” and incurring in "fraud and abuse".
James considered that the group operates as a company and not as a non-profit organization (which is how the NRA is registered in New York State).
The "absolutism and secrecy" in the NRA - as Smyth defines LaPierre's mandate - then went into decline.
In the lawsuit filed, of more than 100 pages, James maintains that the NRA has misused up to 64 million dollars (about 53 million euros) over three years.
The prosecutor alleges tax evasion, irregular campaign financing and exorbitant payments to the members of the Board of Directors.
In the latter category, LaPierre would have spent more than $ 250,000 on trips to the Bahamas and Lake Como (Italy), among others;
another quarter of a million at Zegna's exclusive clothing store in Beverly Hills (California);
and chartered a private plane for almost $ 27,000 for his daughter and niece to get to an NRA event as they missed the commercial flight.
The list of expenses goes on and on.
As all this waste was going on, the NRA, in desperate need of funds, was raising membership dues for the second year in a row. To cut costs, free coffee and water dispensers were eliminated at the organization's huge headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. Employee pension funds were also frozen.
The group's lawyers have equated eventual legal action against the organization with "the death sentence" of the NRA.
Faced with such a threat, the association devised a legal ruse so that the State of New York - and its justice - would not have power over the group.
Despite the fact that the NRA, as stated by its own board of directors, is in financial health and able to pay its creditors, the organization declared bankruptcy in January, with the ultimate goal of disengaging from New York - A state ruled by the Democrats - and reestablish themselves in Texas - traditionally Republican.
The NRA did not respond to any of this newspaper's requests.
Bankruptcy
However, federal judge Harlin Hale this month rejected the group's request to file for Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, which would have allowed it to “relieve the honest debtor of the burden of oppressive debts and allow them to start off free of obligations and consequent responsibilities of his bad fortune in the businesses ”. The idea is to allow the association to pay off the debts that it can but continue to exist to maintain employment, rather than collapse from heavy financial obligations.
To the surprise of the NRA, the association's decision to file for bankruptcy struck Judge Hale, to say the least, suspicious.
"The NRA has always presented itself before its members and before the law as an institution in strong financial condition," the resolution reads.
Also in the judge's words: "The NRA has not requested bankruptcy in good faith because the law does not contemplate the possibility for which it intends to use it."
It is true that the NRA has lost the first round to get rid of the New York Prosecutor's Office.
But Judge Hale's decision can be appealed and would be reviewed by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a very conservative court dominated by judges elected by George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
It is risky to dictate the demise of the NRA.
But what is certain is that "she is seriously injured," according to Smyth.
While the once-all-powerful group is fragile, some other arms defense organizations long for the opportunity to fill, perhaps, that possible void. Gun Owners of America, with just 100,000 members - compared to the NRA's 5 million - believes the time has come for its much more aggressive pro-gun agenda to prevail. postulates of the National Rifle Association. Gun Owners of America, with white supremacists among its ranks, says it has funds to spare to withstand five years without funding.
The declaration of principles of the National Association for the Right to Arms is resounding in the face of the NRA.
"We don't wear Gucci loafers or wear $ 200,000 worth of clothes to brag about before stuffing the pockets of cowardly Washington politicians to vote for guns."
A Russian spy and Oliver North
A day after a federal judge sentenced Russian Maria Butina to 18 months in prison for conspiring to infiltrate the NRA and spy for Moscow, Oliver North announced at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual convention ) that he would not stand for reelection as president.
It was April 27, 2019, and North's resignation came shortly after The Wall Street Journal published, exclusively, a story that claimed North had asked Wayne LaPierre, the organization's chief executive, to resign. Otherwise, according to that information, North would reveal evidence that LaPierre had used lobbyist funds for his personal use.
Oliver North came to the NRA at the age of 75 and a well-known face to Americans. During the 1980s, when he served as an advisor to then-president Ronald Reagan, North was embroiled in one of the greatest scandals in US history: the Iran-Contra affair.
Maria Butina served a 15-month sentence in the federal prison in Tallahassee (Florida). At the end of October 2019, at the age of 30, she was deported to Russia.
