Posted on 04/27/2019 7:03:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Retired U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North will step down as president of the National Rifle Association, North said on Saturday, adding he was being forced out due to his allegations that NRA leaders engaged in financial improprieties.
In a letter to the organization’s annual meeting in Indianapolis read by an NRA board member, North, a conservative commentator best known for his central role in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, said he had hoped to stand for re-election when his term ends on Monday.
“I am now informed that will not happen,” North said in the letter.
His departure came after NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre accused North of trying to oust him by threatening to release “damaging” information about him, according to a letter from LaPierre to NRA board members that was published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
NRA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
North, 75, who was named by the NRA as its president in May 2018, was a pivotal figure in the Iran-Contra affair involving secret sales of arms to Iran by Republican President Ronald Reagan’s administration and the unlawful diversion of the proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels.
When he was appointed, LaPierre hailed him as “a legendary warrior for American freedom, a gifted communicator and skilled leader.”
North, long a hero to some on the political right, was convicted in 1989 of three felonies related to the Iran-Contra affair, but his convictions were overturned on appeal in 1990.
(Excerpt) Read more at ijr.com ...
So glad I’m a GOA member. The GOA has none of this in-fighting crap and they don’t cave an inch to the Marxists.
I pay my $35 a year for NRA membership and yet they still ask me for more money every other week. The NRA is over for me. There are plenty of other pro-gun organizations that can use the money.
The NRA isn’t the only game in in town for 2A supporters. Gun Owners of America has a successful track record, also.
North was sending arms to the NRA Contras?
Gun Owners of America is tiny, with perhaps 8,000 dues paying members. The NRA has 3.6m. (Estimates based on dividing membership dues by annual membership fees - $45 for NRA, $20 for GOA). Membership dues numbers are on page 9:
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521256643/201703129349300700/IRS990
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530116130/201722619349300507/IRS990
I like GOA, but it really is a pygmy.
GOA is great. JPFO is also great.
Until North began to notice improprieties and irregularities in Wayne's books.
If the board has any hopes of damage control they need to allow an exhaustive audit by an outside agency. And allow the agency to publish the results. LaPierre needs to go, regardless. For the good of NRA's reputation.
I'll never give them another dime until they fix this mess.
When you read the details in the Knox letter in Ammoland it’s pretty clear the level of corruption that north was up against. No wonder they are almost broke, they have been funding nra clowns who quit by giving 6 figure phony consulting contracts. I will never give these dirtbags another red cent.
[The NRA isn’t the only game in in town for 2A supporters. Gun Owners of America has a successful track record, also.]
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521256643/201703129349300700/IRS990
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530116130/201722619349300507/IRS990
The NRA’s monthly publication keeps members abreast of gun legislation and GOP turncoats on gun rights.
The NRA was absent for the midterms.
I don't care if they consist of a quartet of Grandmas meeting for Bridge. They DON'T compromise. They don't send you junk mail every week.
[I don’t care if they consist of a quartet of Grandmas meeting for Bridge. They DON’T compromise. They don’t send you junk mail every week. ]
NRA spending was much reduced for the 2018 midterms, but it was there. The principal reason? It busted the budget in 2016 rooting for the GOP, spending almost 3x as much is in 2012.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000082&cycle=2018
Part of the problem is probably complacency on the part of gun owners (aka NRA members and donors), now that a GOP president is in office.
Riiight. That's why they're routinely demonized and always to blame first when a mass shooting happen, right?
The Left will NEVER attack the GOA like they do the the NRA. Because again, they don't cave.
Whereas GOP pols are unquestionably afraid of the NRA’s 3.6m members and communications that tell those members where their local legislators stand on gun issues.
That's mostly irrelevant. The GOP is unquestionably afraid simply due to the fact that gun owners vote. It has little to do with the NRA's membership and mass communications, though that does play a factor.
Does the GOA do this?
They do. And they do it without the infighting, the clogged mailboxes, and having overhead. I respect the NRA, I just think the GOA is more better at defending the 2nd. They even sued the Trump administration on the bump stock ban.
A good point. Nothing against GOA but numbers and name recognition do matter. NRA has both.
I hope they will be able to resolve this. Both organizations are needed for the upcoming election.
I recall they (NRA) made some very thought provoking ads in years past. I hope they can get back to doing things like that.
From the NYT:
“It’s really not the contributions,” said Cleta Mitchell, a former N.R.A. board member. “It’s the ability of the N.R.A. to tell its members: Here’s who’s good on the Second Amendment.”
Far more than any check the N.R.A. could write, it is this mobilization operation that has made the organization such a challenging adversary for Democrats and gun control advocates — one that, after the massacre at a school in Parkland, Fla., is struggling to confront an emotional student-led push for new restrictions.
The N.R.A.’s impact comes, in large part, from the simplicity of the incentives it presents to political candidates: letter grades, based on their record on the Second Amendment, that guide the N.R.A.’s involvement in elections. Lawmakers who earn an “A” rating can count on the group not to oppose them when they run for re-election or higher office.
For candidates who earn lower grades, the group deploys a range of blunt-force methods against them. The N.R.A. mails the voter guides to its five million members, displaying images of favored candidates on the front, and some state chapters bombard supporters with emails about coming elections.]
Allan West would be a great replacement.
Im not up on all the pearl clutching but the whole mess is just fodder for the libs.
Hail North as a hero when he comes onboard and now he is out? Im sure he held his lip until it all blew up like this.
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