Assessing gun protections as the NRA fights for its life
NEWTOWN – For six months, the NRA has been giving its supporters and its opponents the same message: the nation’s premier gun-rights group has never been stronger, despite the powers in New York that have sued to put it out of business.
But the NRA’s surprise Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Texas earlier this month has opened eyes on both sides of the gun policy debate. While some say it isn’t clear how draining it will be for the 149-year-old organization to remake itself in a gun-friendly state, others say the NRA is already becoming a diminishing force for gun protections as it fights for its life in the courts.
“The NRA has definitely been an influential lobbyist to expand gun rights for decades, but they’ve become more extreme than ever before and they don’t represent the majority of gun owners who support sensible reform,” said Po Murray chairwoman of the homegrown nonprofit Newtown Action Alliance, a gun violence prevention group. “The NRA fights any and all gun laws that would make us safer – it should be dissolved.”
Murray is referring to a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James in August, seeking to dissolve the NRA as a nonprofit for “diversion of millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization.” The NRA, which denied the allegations in a countersuit, filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas on Jan. 15, saying New York had “weaponized the legal and
regulatory powers” and “unlawfully singled out (the NRA) for its Second Amendment advocacy.”
A leading gun industry analyst believes the NRA has been injured more than its leaders are saying.
“I do think the NRA has been taken down more than a couple of notches,” said Rich Dupree, an analyst for Motley Fool. “The New York Attorney General said she basically wants to wipe out the organization, so I understand why the NRA wants to get the heck out of there…but if it has to start raising money to defend itself, it will dilute its lobbying efforts.”
The NRA declined a request to comment on Friday. Its leadership has promised supporters that dues will only be spent on “the purpose of advancing the NRA’s mission, period.”
“We need your support now – as we confront a Biden administration that has vowed to attack your Second Amendment freedoms,” the NRA says on NRAForward, a website detailing the NRA’s restructuring plans. “All donations are used in
furtherance of our mission.”
The NRA’s bankruptcy filing follows the Chapter 11 sell-off in September of another storied name in the firearms world. Remington Arms, saddled by debt and lawsuit expenses, was sold off in a Chapter 11 sale for $159 million. Lawyers for a group of Sandy Hook families who lost loved ones in the 2012 school shooting were in the courtroom to assure that enough money was set aside by the bankruptcy judge for their wrongful death lawsuit against Remington to continue.
The NRA has denied that its Chapter 11 filing is due to insolvency, saying in a Jan. 15 statement “the NRA is in its strongest financial condition in years.” The organization in its bankruptcy filing was only required to report a dollar range to describe its financial condition. The NRA said is has between $100 million and $500 million in assets and between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities, the Associated Press reported.