The legal troubles--including allegations of corruption--was apparently too much even for the proxy voters in the NRA. As The Reload reports, "Reformers Prevail at NRA Meeting, Elect New Leadership." From the article:
On Monday, the NRA board voted to install reform candidates across three of its top four leadership positions. That includes the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President position filled by Wayne LaPierre until his resignation during the group’s corruption trial. Doug Hamlin, who ran the NRA’s publications and ran on a reform platform, defeated Ronnie Barrett in a 35-to-31 vote.
“We want to welcome all of our members to the new NRA,” Hamlin told The Reload. “We want to welcome those that we’ve lost in the past five years to come back to us. And we want them to bring friends and family with them.”
Reform candidates also won the first and second vice president positions, with Bill Bachenberg defeating Blaine Wade and Mark Vaughn defeating Tom King. That gives the reformers a significant say over the NRA’s day-to-day and strategic decisions moving forward. It comes shortly after a jury found the organization failed to safeguard its charitable assets as LaPierre and others diverted millions of NRA dollars toward their personal expenses.
The fresh blood combined with a change in operations and legal tactics, which the reformers can enact now that they control two of the three positions on the committee overseeing legal strategy, could bolster their odds of avoiding a court-appointed monitor.
Hamlin said the new NRA leadership will focus on providing more transparency to members, citing the open nature of the leadership elections as an example, and tightening up the group’s financial operations.
Hopefully they are ready to attack.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see. Historically, the NRA has been too conciliatory, it's top leadership too often supported anti-gun measures, and they like to take credit for work done by other organizations. And while they have achieved a near monopoly on certifying instructors, particularly for youth training programs, it has also made it more expensive and difficult for those groups to provide those programs. My oldest son was in the Boy Scouts when it transitioned to only allowing NRA certified people oversea the instruction of youths looking to earn a rifle or shotgun badge, and it basically ended any of the kids getting those badges.
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