NRA set for move to Texas after filing for bankruptcy amid legal problems in N.Y.
The National Rifle Association is moving to Texas and restructuring as a nonprofit after filing for bankruptcy among legal trouble with state authorities in New York.
The move is in response to a “corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York,” the company said in a press release Friday. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the organization in August, pushing to dissolve it for misspending and selfdealing.
Wayne LaPierre, the group’s vice president, said the NRA is not going out of business, and it has filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the North District of Texas, Dallas Division, in a letter to members and supporters.
“Texas values the contributions of the NRA, celebrates our law-abiding members, and joins us as a partner in upholding constitutional freedom,” LaPierre said.
LaPierre had previously sought to have the gun rights organization to buy him a $6 million mansion in the suburbs of Dallas.
President Donald Trump had previously encouraged the NRA to move to Texas.
“The NRA should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life,” Trump said at the White House after news of the New York attorney general’s investigation. “Texas would be a great place and
an appropriate place for the NRA. … They’ve been absolutely decimated by the cost of that lawsuit, and it’s very sad.”
Gov. Greg Abbott jumped on welcoming the gun rights organization to the Lone Star State with open arms.
“Welcome to Texas — a state that safeguards the 2nd Amendment,” he said in a tweet.
The organization will be headquartered in Fairfax, Va., for now. It has established a committee to look at opportunities to relocate some business operations to Texas, according to the press release.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso, which in August 2019 experienced the worst mass shooting of Hispanics in recent U.S. history, was quick to criticize Abbott’s embrace of the gun rights organization.
“More than one hundred Americans are shot and killed every day and twice that many have been wounded by gun violence,” Escobar said in a tweet. “But instead of taking meaningful actions to reduce gun violence in Texas and honor El Paso victims, Greg Abbott is courting the @NRA.”