Director Willis Lee links to a post by Apryl Marie Fogel, who left a radio show to hire on with NRA HQ, in a “dream job.” Then she found the reality: the job was a nightmare, “The supposed course corrections NRA members, board, and the court has heard so much about haven’t worked and can’t work when the bad guys are entrenched and the good guys are scared of them. Staff who love the organization have been conditioned to keep their heads down because when they speak up they are openly retaliated against and accused of being a traitor.” Among the comments: “Heard the same from others that worked there.”
Here is Col. Lee’s Facebook page, with many insights. Here’s the Facebook Page for “Members Take Back Our NRA,” a worthy cause. It has helpful tips for the annual meeting next month.
A thought: there is a term, I forget it, for a common human error. In a group, each member may come to assume that because the others do not act or react, they must know something that the individual member does not, even when, in truth, the others do not react precisely because they are thinking the same thing. In light of this, if you collapse in an emergency, you should not call out to a crowd for aid – instead, pick an individual in the crowd and call out to him or her. Might that not be the situation with the NRA board? Everyone stays silent, in the face of obvious danger, on the assumption that since everyone else is silent there must not be a real crisis. Even when everyone, or at least the great majority of the board, in fact realizes there is a crisis (or several of them).
Might this be changing? Directors are now daring to speak out. What’s missing so far are the big names on the board (those of them who are not in on the corruption) standing up and banding together. The bad guys are in a bad position at the moment. They’ve lost their symbol (LaPierre) and his enforcer (Marion Hammer), been pounded in a court decision, membership and finances are collapsing, and they now have to argue that the court will be convinced of NRA’s intent to reform by electing exactly those who got NRA into this mess and tried to cover it up. That small stream of water may be eating a hole in the dam.
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NRA in Danger 
The entire board, with one exception, needs to be replaced with a much board (no more than 15). There is no redemption for the current board because they do not have the proper experience or training. Concepts of fiduciary responsibility and oversight is meaningless to them. In the real non-profit the vast majority of them would never be asked or allowed on the board. Some of the board’s responses that I didn’t know and I asked for it but never got reply are not legal excuses for their ineptitude. And Willis Lee is just as corrupt as Cotton et al.
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My observation from my short time on the Board is that Directors are kept “busy” with their committees and trust/assume that other Directors are on top of the issues. They act as subordinates (“I did what I was asked to do”) rather than act as Fiduciaries (as they should act) and the powers that be(or used to be, Wayne, Cotton, Brewer….) preferred it that way as they could do what they wanted.
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I worked at NRA for 35 years and the rot goes very deep. Department managers, directors – all were contaminated. Only those that followed the “true faith” of LaPierre received bonuses or promotions. Any adverse comments were recorded by superiors or worse – by peers. It will take some serious bleach to clean the association, but the saddest thing is the number of great folks shown the door over the years. Used to say that NRA has gotten rid of more good employees than many companies will ever have…
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Man is a herd animal. Most go with the flow. I remember some years back, hearing of a study the DOD commissioned, the purpose of which was to psycho analyze people and see, how many had the capacity to be leaders, in case of a war… A real war, with the draft re-instituted, not some global homo empire excursion. The conclusion was, if I remember correctly, only about 13% had the capacity to be leaders.
Another study much along the same lines, was about freedom, and how many people are willing to make the effort and sacrifice to be, and continue to be free, and it was slightly over 20% as I recall.
Now factor in a group of people, any group of people, with a leadership which is corrupt. Who do you think that leadership will hire? Honest men or crooks? In that respect the NRA is no different that the uni-party, or the FBI or CIA. The rot at the top trickles on down. That’s why they have to purge of all honest board members and employees, as decent men can’t be tolerated in a criminal organization. Those say 10% to 20% of men who have the ability to lead and stand on their own two feet. And that’s why the remainder of the board and employees who may not be out and out corrupt themselves, go with the flow, as they are part of that 80% to 90% of men who lack the guts and or ability to stand up and take charge and say, “NO!” to the corruption.
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Independent thinkers have always been a threat to organizations of more than few people. In a big organization, one needs a majority of people who know the direction of the objectives and make decisions based on an understanding of those objectives. The independent thinkers are an irritant to the fabric of the group. But those people are the most important to the organization and are the force that brings the group back on line, or keeps it from veering off into oblivion.
It’s hard to be that person. One has to be secure in one’s beliefs and willing to take criticism from the group. So it’s not that the NRA directors are overtly evil, they are just comfortable in the get-along-go-along role. So they all have to be gone.
The next leadership of the NRA has to actively solicit and protect dissenting ideas. Being that person is the essence of true leadership.
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Purge all the Directors that took a knee to LaPierre.
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There are a whole lot of very good people working for the NRA, and we need to do our best to retain and reward those good folks. I think the majority of the Board is also made up of good people, but the culture that has been cultivated for years at the NRA is one of going along to get along. I absolutely agree that the phenomenon mentioned above — the assumption that others know something I don’t know, so I’ll just keep my mouth shut and let them handle it — is pervasive. Add to that a culture that doesn’t tolerate dissent, and you have a recipe for disaster.
I’m currently working on a column focused on Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” This is the culture we should be cultivating. Not disagreement for the sake of disagreement, but encouraging digging, questioning, challenging, and innovating. Embracing this approach makes us all better. We shouldn’t assume that someone questioning and challenging our ideas is tearing us down or working against us. We should look at their questions and challenges as an opportunity to refine those ideas and make them better. That’s the culture we need to be striving for.
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A rather polyanish approach to an organization in tatters and which did all and more to themselves. Perhaps some of the desk level folks are great, however the great majority of Directors and above need to go now. I look at the competitive shooting program which was destroyed by Howard Moody, Dennis Willing, Mike Krie and the current director Cole McCullough who wants competitions to be nothing more than “The World Shooting (plinking) Championships”. His comments during the 2022 Atterbury matches were basically that bullseye shooting in all forms was dying and he praised his programs where he gets vendors to pay for which minimizes his efforts as his interest in learning about the traditional bullseye programs is at or near zero.
I am tired of the garbage and the circle the wagons mentality and hearing about the past as it was the past and those in power which created the present. If the association wishes to create a the future using the same models and people that led to their current pathetic state then the association needs to be dissolved.
Again this year I shredded my ballot as all I see is more of the same. None of this had to happen and we were played for fools. This was and is about personal and professional greed and I am amazed that anyone would think or believe otherwise. Who cares what Lee has to say because when he should have spoken up he did nothing and was subsequently voted off the NRA greed and corruption island. Why does anyone take these people seriously now that we have depositions and testimony as to how greedy they all were.
Time for positive constructive change with all new people as otherwise the NRA should be ended.
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I cringe every time I think of the $1,000’s I gave to those crooks, which I naively thought was going to protecting our rights and funding various shooting programs and sports. Just the thought of my being a life member makes me sick, being fooled, and wasting all that time and money.
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