NRA To Become A For-Profit Corporation?

Posted bynraindangerPosted inUncategorized

We’ve heard that a resolution aimed at turning NRA into a for-profit corporation is circulating among insiders. It’d be brought up for a vote at the next directors’ meeting and then (since it involves a change to the corporate charter) be up for a vote at the next, 2025, members’ meeting.

This would be a dramatic change, and it’s not being thought through. NRA would lose its nonprofit postage discount (about 40%, and with millions of members, magazine mailings, and fundraisers, this likely means costs would go up by millions or tens of millions), and in the unusual year in which it showed a surplus, would pay corporate income tax on that. (21% federal plus 6.8% Virginia).

Those are considerable penalties, we have ask, why would NRA incur them? Specifically, why would NRA members vote to incur them? The only upsides for the organization would be to escape the regulatory measures that bind nonprofits. A nonprofit’s tax return is public record, a for-profit’s is not. A nonprofit has to disclose things like insider business deals and payments to directors, a for-profit does not. These changes make it easier for insiders to profit or go corrupt. How does any of this serve the interests of the members? It works against them. The mere proposal of such a dramatic and costly change shows that the profiting insiders have no intention of reforming, that they will resume their ways as soon as the smoke clears, and that they regard the members as chumps who can be led by the nose.

And what becomes of the members under this idea? Do they become shareholders? Can their shares, like any other shares, be sold or inherited? (Remember we have a lot of life members.) This sounds like a costly but half-baked idea, like the bankruptcy.

Overall lesson: when a nonprofit’s “leadership” wants to change its corporate charter to make embezzlement and self-dealing easier, you need new leadership.

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35 thoughts on “NRA To Become A For-Profit Corporation?”

  1. If anything this reinforces management and the board’s disdain for member oversight.

    Seems to be insiders tightening their circle to protect themselves.

    MIght be time to bring back my resolution from the 2019 members meeting calling for the resignation of Wayne (gone), the executive, audit, and finance committee members.

    The only addition would be the dissolution of the Executive Council, whose members, I suspect are behind this bonehead maneuver.

    And of course, Brewer will support it as it generates significant additional legal work.

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    1. Furthermore, I would like Jeff Knox to opine because he knows the Bylaws better than most people and I wonder if such a move would require the majority of all NRA members to ratify such a move. Regardless, sounds like another lawsuit will be forthcoming!!!

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      2. Gounds for another lawsuit is not following the Bylaws, if in fact the entire NRA members must vote for such a change, or management changing the Bylaws solely for the purpose of bypassing the NRA members from voting on such a change.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Presuming you did sue, how? Would it have to be a New York court due to the NRA incorporation there? Or a Virginia court where the HQ is located?

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      4. The same way we are currently suing the NRA in our class action lawsuit pending in the Tennessee federal court by the Honorable Judge Campbell.

        Specifically, it is based on the doctrine of “Diversity of Citizenship” which means that if each party is in a different state and the amount of the controversy exceed $75, 000, one can file a federal lawsuit in his/her state. Therefore, regardless of which state the NRA is incorporated (NY, VA Texas, etc.), one can file a federal lawsuit in his/her state.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. What is your current lawsuit about? Is the “we” you mentioned a group of members or a business or something that had dealings with the NRA?

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      6. OUR lawsuit is a class action lawsuit representing all 5 million (assuming that is an accurate number) NRA members.

        Please read several articles at the links:

        Donor Class Action Lawsuit – NRA Watch

        Don’t Forget All The National Rifle Association’s Other Lawsuits…. (ammoland.com)

        As one can see our class action lawsuit started approximately 5 years ago.

        Lastly,  we have the preeminent law firm of Loevy & Loevy which specializes in class action lawsuits.

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      7. Replying to Nolson1404 – since the webmaster(s) is taking his or her sweet time to authorize my reply and doesn’t tell what the problem is let’s try it one sentence at a time!

        Liked by 1 person

      8. OUR lawsuit is a class action lawsuit representing all 5 million (assuming that is an accurate number) NRA members.

        Liked by 1 person

      12. Lastly,  we have the preeminent law firm of Loevy & Loevy which specializes in class action lawsuits.

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      1. Presuming you did sue, how? Would it have to be a New York court due to the NRA incorporation there? Or a Virginia court where the HQ is located?

        Liked by 1 person

    3. OUR lawsuit is a class action lawsuit representing all 5 million (assuming that is an accurate number) NRA members.

      Please read several articles at the links:

      Donor Class Action Lawsuit – NRA Watch

      Don’t Forget All The National Rifle Association’s Other Lawsuits…. (ammoland.com)

      As one can see our class action lawsuit started approximately 5 years ago.

      Lastly, we have the preeminent law firm of Loevy & Loevy which specializes in class action lawsuits.

      Liked by 1 person

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  2. “Overall lesson: when a nonprofit’s “leadership” wants to change its corporate charter to make embezzlement and self-dealing easier, you need new leadership.” That is the plain gospel truth. The organization is being destroyed before our eyes. You heard of the Ship of Fools? This Board and Executive Leadership is a Barge of Idiots.

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  3. Yes, indeed we need new leadership. It sounds like that under this proposal the crooked insiders will continue to rip off the membership dues and the average member will get screwed. I personally think that with out a few exceptions a completely new slate of managers and directors for this organization should be selected.

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  4. I have to say that while I have strongly supported the NRA and the attempt to fix it, this is the one thing that would make me resign my membership immediately. I don’t think that I would stick around to even see if it passed.

    I do hope that the judge in this case knows about this, and takes a very dim view of it, and will act accordingly.

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  5. I said it before. The entire board of directors needs to be dismissed, and banned from ever serving again. They made this mess, and they cannot be trusted to clean it up.

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  6. The insiders floating this ridiculous idea are the same snidest who have aided and abetted the corruption that has devastated the treasury of this great association. Their motive is clear, lower the curtain to scrutiny so they can continue their abuses unseen.

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  7. I’d be careful with this rumor. There have been some other misleading rumors and erroneous reports that have floated around during this whole mess and we don’t want to get sucked into railing about something that’s not really happening, or not being reported accurately.
    I do know there was talk of spinning off some parts of NRA (mainly Carry Guard, before it was shuttered) to be for-profit, but this is the first I’ve heard of any plan to shift the whole thing from nonprofit to for-profit. That would be a very big deal, and I don’t see how it could be a positive move.
    There might be some scenario under which it might make sense for the NRA to have a for-profit division, just as it makes sense for them to have a 501(c)(3) entity in the form of the NRA Foundation. Perhaps that’s what this rumor is about.
    As to the technicalities, the plan would have to go before the Board, then it would be put on the ballot, along with Director Elections, for the Voting Members to vote on by mail, prior to the 2025 Members’ Meeting. As with Bylaws changes, the proposal would almost certainly be put forward as a package deal, touting all of the benefits, offering no opportunity for any opposing opinion to be published, and telling the members that the Board unanimously (or overwhelmingly) supports the move and encourages a YES vote. I expect all of it, along with some routine “housekeeping” amendments, and other totally unrelated amendments would be on the ballot under a single question so Members would only have the option of either voting Yes — make all of the various Bylaw and Charter changes, or NO — don’t make any of these changes.
    This points up another critical reform that the judge should require going forward, which would be to require the publication of Majority and Minority, or Support and Oppose statements in the ballot package whenever the membership is asked to vote on any Bylaw or Charter amendment. 
    This is also another reason why it’s so important to get voices like Phil Journey, Rocky Marshall, Dennis Fusaro, and me on the Board, to present opposing arguments when the “leadership” tries to steam-roll some proposition that’s not good for NRA members.
    On the current ballot, the Bylaw amendments pertaining to the creation of a Chief Compliance Officer position, are all related and critical to the main objective, so it makes sense for them to all be under one question on the ballot. The last time there were Bylaw amendments on the ballot though, there were some 17 different amendments that were not dependent upon each other and should have been presented as 17 different questions on the ballot. Some were innocuous things like correcting some typo or updating a bylaw to keep up with current technology, while others dealt with important issues like the number of valid signatures needed to nominate a Director candidate by petition, recall a Director or officer, or submit a Bylaw amendment. It was all pretty complicated, and while I fully supported some of the amendments, I strongly opposed the changes to petition signature requirements, as those made nominating someone by petition much more difficult, and made recalls and Bylaw amendments by petition virtually impossible.
    I and a few others did our best to argue against those amendments, but since our arguments weren’t in the ballot package, or published in any NRA publications, we had little impact on the election. In the end, the total package passed by an overwhelming majority. Had that Bylaw amendment package not passed, the members could have — and very likely would have — forced a recall vote on Wayne LaPierre back in 2020, followed by recalls against Charles Cotton, David Coy, Marion Hammer, and possibly a few others.
    At one point Judge Cohen expressed confusion at the fact that NRA members kept reelecting the same Board members who kept reelecting LaPierre. He wondered out loud whether this really was the will of the membership. What he apparently didn’t grasp was the fact that the vast majority of NRA members get almost all of their information regarding the NRA exclusively from NRA publications and they don’t trust other sources — even gun magazines, blogs, and writers with stellar reputations in the community — and NRA publications were controlled by LaPierre and company to only present their side of any story and support only their chosen candidates.
    That’s still true, but with Cotton and Brewer now controlling NRA publications.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. Some interesting thoughts to ponder. I especially like the idea of the NRA being forced to publish the lists of what board member(s) supports or opposes ballot questions, etc, and the requirement to publish a dissenting opinion to any such changes.

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  8. Where is the judge while all this is going on? When a verdict is theft, why are the thieves and enablers still in place to steal again?

    Liked by 2 people

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  9. Nothing will change till the current board and Brewer are fired and the board is restructured to get rid of Wayne’s cronies, reduce board from 76 members to a number that is sensible and bring in a chief compliance officer that was not hired by Wayne (done before he stepped down) a compliance officer chosen by the judge. And finally removing all defendents from ever working for a non-profit.

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  10. “This sounds like a costly but half-baked idea, like the bankruptcy.”

    Actually, it sounds at first glance like a WORSE idea than the bankruptcy.

    I think our best hope now is the Judge in NY removing the Executive Committee, Officers, and Brewer (if possible). And ordering elections for new Officers and Executive Committee with the stipulation that none of the current office holders can run.

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  11. As a long time NRA Life member and Benefactor Life Member such a for profit idea that has been floated is a bad one. What I want is the same NRA but with accountability. That might mean the complete replacement of the current BOD and managements. Yes there may be some good people now on the BOD and they can try to be on it again, however the rank and file NRA members have great difficulty in believing that they were not able to get their massage out as to the existing problems in house.

    We need to look closely at what is done to save the NRA, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. This is not going to be an overnight restructuring, it will take time and careful planning and extreme caution when listening to those who are still leaders of the NRA or those who want to retain their positions. Listen to this old man of almost 92.

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  12. NRA experimented with for-profit spinoffs. Needless to say, based on recent revelations regarding NRA’s incompetent so-called leadership, that experimentation proved to be unsuccessful. Below is from the Virginia State Corporation Commission. .

    06754675 NRA FUD, INC.Legal Name  Stock Corporation
    11250 WAPLES MILL RD, FAIRFAX, VA, 22030 – 0000, USA CT CORPORATION SYSTEM Inactive

    05643986 NRA HOLDINGS COMPANY, INC.Legal Name  Stock Corporation
    C/O OFFICE OF THE GEN COUNSEL, 11250 WAPLES MILL ROAD, FAIRFAX, VA, 22030 – 0000, USA STEFAN TAHMASSEBI  Inactive

    It is unknown if there is something in another state.

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  13. The NRA as I knew it no longer exists. It seems to be focused on continuing the insider dealing and self advancement of selected individuals while the general membership see’s little return for their monies. The senior leadership and BOD all need to go along with Brewer. I will not be voting this year as short of a court directed overhaul of their operations I am not seeing any future for the NRA. Problems just keep rolling along while being directed by the same incompetent staff and BOD who created and maintained the mess over the last 10 plus years. Without a written plan all that is occurring are parlor games by individuals who are living proof that a jellyfish is capable of walking. 

    Accountability to organization and its members is not part of the NRA’s mission and at some point what is the point of their existence? Tired of hearing garbage and lies from the Senior Staff and BOD. Clean house, start all over again or go away.

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  14. The fact is the trial in New York resumes in the last half of July. That portion of the trial is where the NRA attorneys will attempt to prove that they have “safe Harbor” corrections of past failings in place and all is well. The NY judge has a broad array of remedies. The Washington DC trial against NRA Foundation begins 4/29. The NRA members meeting is 5/18 @ 10am Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention center in Dallas. We need to make the membership heard by leadership.

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