Murray: NRA should be dissolved
Local gun advocates, reform supporters wait for Biden’s agenda
NEWTOWN — For six months, the National Rifle Association has been giving its supporters and its opponents the same message: the nation’s premier gunrights 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 Southbury-based president of Connecticut’s largest gunowner’s group said she doesn’t know enough about the NRA’s internal financial condition to assess what impact it would have should the NRA have to divert more resources from its mission to expensive court battles in New York and Texas.
“The NRA has an important presence just like any Second Amendment group has,” said Holly Sullivan, president of the
38,000-member Connecticut Citizens Defense League. “I hope for their success for all gun owners, just like I hope for the success of any Second Amendment group.”
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.
The NRA’s voluntary bankruptcy comes at a time when Democrats have taken control both chambers of congress and
the White House. President Joe Biden was elected on an aggressive platform of gun reform proposals.
A spokesman for the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for firearms industry, said although its mission is distinct from the NRA’s, Biden’s gun reform agenda is an area of shared concern.
“We all want to be sure that law-abiding Americans have their rights protected to possess firearms under the Second Amendment,” said NSSF spokesman Mark Oliva. “In that respect we’re on parallel tracks … and we’re certainly fighting on each other’s side, and for each other’s issues.”
Oliva stopped short of assessing what impact the NRA’s court commitments would have on its lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C.
The analyst Dupree said it was unlikely that the NRA could fight for its life in the courts while keeping its same profile as the premier gun lobbyist in the nation.
“There are other good groups out there such as the Gun Owners of America and the Second Amendment Foundation, although they don’t have the same backing as the NRA,” Dupree said. “This is going to have a negative impact on the industry.”