Key Iran-Contra figure will lead NRA
Oliver North, who became a household name in the 1980s for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, will become the next president of the National Rifle Association, the gun rights organization said Monday.
North emerged in 1986 as a central figure in the Iran-Contra affair, in which the Reagan administration used the proceeds from the secret sale of arms to Iran to aid rebel forces in Nicaragua.
In 1989, North was convicted of destroying government documents, accepting an illegal gratuity and aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress. He successfully fought those convictions, getting them reversed in 1991 after prosecutors concluded they could not prove that the witnesses who testified against him weren’t influenced by his congressional testimony, for which he was granted immunity.
North said this week the NRA is a victim of “civil terrorism” and accused gun control activists of “intimidation and harassment and lawbreaking.”
Several of the students who survived the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., are pushing back.
“He’s just continuing to spread fear. He’s definitely a good fit for his new job,” Ryan Deitsch, a senior at the school, said in an interview during his lunch period on Friday.