The plan to amend the bylaws to let Charles Cotton run for a third term as president succeeded. We’d earlier guessed that the inner circle might (for some unknown reason) be chary of letting 1st VP Willis Lee follow him as president.
That surely is the case, since Lee was not re-nominated as 1st VP. To our memory, this is unprecedented, other than the purge of Neal Knox from that post, a quarter-century ago. Only Guns and Money has thoughts on this (and read the comments).
Looking at Col. Lee’s Facebook page, there are things that suggest he may have stopped drinking the Kool Aid. He resigned from the “Special Litigation Committee,” the three directors who rubber-stamp everything associated with litigation, “for reasons.” He opposed the bylaw change, sounds like he was blind-sided by it. He dares to link to this Jeff Knox article, and to post “Two years after the judge dismisses NRA Bankruptcy suit is a good time to renew the (my) pledge to never, again, keep secrets from the Board of Directors.”
So. . . to keep Lee from becoming president yesterday, the bylaws are suddenly amended to allow Cotton a third term, and Lee is rejected by the Nominating Committee, taking him from the person who would be president today to a non-officer. These are board actions, not long ago the board elected and re-elected him 1st VP. The board had no problem with him, but on the command of “leadership” it did their bidding. (“Leadership” here means Bill Brewer. That resignation from the Special Litigation Committee, “for reasons,” likely means Lee got crosswise with Brewer.)
Other news: LaPierre was, of course, re-elected as EVP/CEO. Bob Barr was made 1st VP. Charles Cotton remains president.
Directors’ elections: only 3% of members that were sent a ballot bothered to vote, 78,000 out of 2.5 million. That’s way down from five years ago, when it was 5.67%. Over 2012-2018, participation never fell below 5.1%.
NRA in Danger 
Last time an NRA vice president didn’t make the jump to President was many years back – that was Wayne Anthony Ross Alaska.
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As we drive back from Indianapolis crossing behind enemy lines traversing Illinois I am reflecting upon the fact that I was there when both 1st Vice-presidents were defeated. In 1997 I was there voting as a member of the board when we lost by a single vote. Had someone not flipped I wonder how different things might be. It is impossible to equate Willis Lee with Neal Knox. At least Neal went out with a bang and not a whimper. Just like Charlton Heston and Charles Cotton, Charles ain’t no Chuck.
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I didn’t waste time sending in a ballot, a waste of time. I hope the toilet gets flushed and the organization can be restructured by legitimate gun enthusiasts.
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Another very important bit of action was taken by the board. They authorized offers to be made to NRA retirees to buy out pensions. NRA pensions are moderately well funded. The buyout won’t make them much money. What it does is improve the balance sheet on the liability side. They did a much better(worse) job hiding the numbers from the board this meeting. This is a big rotating red light. It infers that they NEED to do this to keep their banker holding the note on HQ. Happy They are also completing tasks to ready the building for sale. Elevators still need work. What can you say I feel sorry for the freshman class of board members. While I had some limited interaction with them. Hall monitors kept interceding. Like 2/3 of the membership they only see what they are shown.
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Count me as one of those members who didn’t vote. I used to every year but when this mess became public I realized voting wasn’t even worth the cost of a postage stamp. The board is anemic and does exactly what it is ordered to do while simultaneously being kept in the dark. Seems better to let this boat sink and hope something better comes along.
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Count me as one of those members who didn’t vote. I used to every year but when this mess became public I realized voting wasn’t even worth the cost of a postage stamp. The board is anemic and does exactly what it is ordered to do while simultaneously being kept in the dark. Seems better to let this boat sink and hope something better comes along.
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With such a low voter turnout couldn’t Anti-WLP people rise up and strike ? I honestly don’t know much more than what I read here and a few other places. Can’t we members gain control somehow? If anyone could make a plan I’d do something to save the NRA.
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Serves Lee right…what goes around comes around. He stabbed his “good friend” Ollie North in the back. Sayonara!!!
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Don’t shed any tears for Lee. Word is that he’ll be getting paid handsomely to travel around the USA and talk up the NRA. Suppose that pay is to buy his silence?
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I’m one of those that chose not to vote. Almost everyone on the ballot was either a returning director or was selected by the nominating committee because they would blindly support Wayne L. If the existing Board members are either in Wayne’s pocket or afraid to cross him by asking tough questions, why should I waste my vote to re-elect them?
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I stopped drinking Wayne’s Kool-Aid four years ago and will never donate again till Wayne’s gone. As an Endowment member I found other 2A groups more worthy of my aging few dollars.
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NRA is being destroyed from within. This annual meeting of members is just like the 2019 annual meeting of members in Indianapolis. Each time the board chose to be unresponsive, rigid, and unable to impose corrective action when presented from various sources with evidence of corruption, waste, and mismanagement at NRA. It is now clear that any board member or officer who voices concern or argues for corrective action to save NRA is punished in various ways. N.Y. Atty. Gen. Letitia James will now have no difficulty convincing the court that the leadership at NRA is incapable of making necessary change. The low voting turn out reveals that now most NRA members feel voting is pointless because it will not change the now entrenched corruption, waste, and mismanagement at NRA.
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This is a wholly separate question, is it possible IF WLP & others receive Prison time that some knucklehead could PARDON him/them ? These are state charges right? And the Federal government has no option to pardon state convictions? 🙏🏻
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Yes this is New York State where the NRA is still incorporated despite attempts to relocate to Texas. POTUS could not issue a pardon. Only Governor Kathy Hochul could and this is not going to happen.
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sat through the membership meeting…sigh…truly wish I hadn’t ~ out of a such a huge organizational membership this was the best turnout they could get…unbelievable!! the topics voted on were nonsensical at best…
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PS: really sad observation…there were no young adults, nor middle aged adults…just olde beaten up adults…
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Myself and my wife didn’t bother to vote because we didn’t know who was suck-buddies with LaPierre and we didn’t want to vote for anyone who supports LaPierre.
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