National Rifle Association (NRA) leader Wayne LaPierre.EVELYN HOCKSTEIN (REUTERS)
To his supporters, Wayne LaPierre was an ardent defender of freedom. To his detractors, he embodied the worst excesses of the gun industry's influence on American politics. This Friday, the leader of the National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the most powerful lobbies in this country, announced his resignation on the eve of a civil court hearing for alleged corruption and citing health reasons.
The resignation of LaPierre, 74, has been accepted by the association's board of directors and will become effective on the 31st of this month, according to the group that defends the citizen use of firearms. "I will never stop supporting the NRA and their fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns brighter than ever," the outgoing CEO, who will be replaced by current Chief Operating Officer Andrew Arulanandam, said in a statement.
The NRA corruption hearing is scheduled to begin next Monday in New York. There, and after a three-year investigation concluded in 2020, prosecutor Laetitia James accuses the resigned leader of appropriating millions of dollars from the lobbyist's accounts for his personal use, including flights on private jets, haute couture suits and other luxury products.
"The NRA's influence has been so powerful that no one oversaw it for decades, while top executives diverted millions of dollars into their own pockets," James said in filing charges. "The NRA is rife with fraud and abuse, which is why we seek to disband it, because no organization is above the law."
LaPierre had risen to the top of the organization in 1991, turning it into a tool to lobby for gun laws, with the capacity to mobilize millions of people in defense of the freedom to bear arms, despite the relentless increase in shootings and casualties over the past three decades. In 2023 alone, there were 656 incidents — almost two a day — in which at least four people were injured, according to the count by the NGO Gun Violence Archive. Nearly 19,000 people have lost their lives in them.
Under his watch, the group's endorsement became desired by aspirants to political office, especially in the Republican Party. Having an organization's "A" or "excellent" rating could make the difference in whether a candidate was elected or failed. But despite his close relationship with the political world, his public narrative insisted on a populist message, which the elites in power sought to disarm and endanger ordinary citizens. "They don't like that the people who clean their floors, clean their clothes and serve them food have the same protection as their armed bodyguards," said one of their ads on the 2016 election campaign.
Its influence skyrocketed from the beginning of the 11st century. The attacks of September 2001, 2009, unleashed arms sales in the United States, especially assault weapons that had been banned during the Bill Clinton era and whose veto is unthinkable in today's United States. A trend that increased during Barack Obama's term (2017-2014): by 400, each gun owner owned an average of eight guns. There were more rifles and revolvers in the country than people: 330 million of the former and 160 million of the latter. "The only thing that stops an armed bad guy is a good gun," the association proclaimed, even if the data contradicted it: an FBI study found that of 2000 gun incidents between 2013 and 2008, only one, in <>, did a "good armed citizen" manage to stop a shooting.
The organization's advertising investment in 2016 represented an important boost for the arrival in the White House of Republican Donald Trump, who as a candidate multiplied his efforts to present himself as an enthusiastic defender of the right to bear arms.
Mass shootings such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, where 17 children and six adults were killed, or at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed and 2018 others injured in February <>, dealt a severe blow to the lobby's reputation.
By the end of 2018, states had passed three times as many firearms control measures as in 2017. In that year's midterm elections, gun control groups had spent more money on advertising than the NRA, forcing the defeat of at least eight election candidates whom the association supported with its coveted A rating. In 2022, Republicans and Democrats reached an agreement to move forward with a bill that imposed certain limitations on access to and possession of weapons.
Since its peak, when it had nearly six million members in 2017, the group has continued to lose members and today has 4.2 million on its lists. Its revenue has fallen 44% since 2016, while its legal expenses have skyrocketed.
His loss of prestige among part of American society unfolded in parallel with infighting over allegations of corruption and fraudulent management, which drew enough attention to James to open an investigation into the association. Among other things, leaked tax documents showed LaPierre passed to the NRA invoices for $275,000 spent at a luxury boutique in Beverly Hills, and about $260,000 on personal flights to the Bahamas and Italy.
"The end of Wayne LaPierre's era at the helm of the NRA is an important victory in our case," the prosecutor said on social media after learning of the defendant's resignation. "LaPierre's resignation vindicates our allegations against him, but it will not protect him from being held accountable. We look forward to the time to take our case to court."
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