NRA: Not a Charity, and Finally, Someone Is Doing Something About It

I have been doing just about everything except following the news closely lately, and my mental health has been the better for it. I did catch the gist of the Tish James/NRA story today, though (yay!), and want to share a Twitter thread from Cory Doctorow that I assume sums up a lot of the reasons for the legal case:

If you think about the NRA, you probably concentrate on the organization's program activities: raising stupendous sums from terrified musketfuckers and spending them to lobby for the most lethally irresponsible firearms policies imaginable.

Which is understandable! Terrorizing ammosexuals is a pretty odious business, reliant on racist dog-whistles, conspiracy theories that victimize the parents of children slaughtered in school shootings, and so. much. red-baiting.

But the NRA isn't merely a terrorist organization. It's a terrorist organization with a business-model. That is, it's a grift. A way to funnel bedwetting gun-humpers' money into the pockets of mediocre sociopaths who run the organization.

For years, the NRA has been mired in scandal, making lavish dispersals to its board of directors and execs.

And spending a fortune helping its president-for-life Wayne LaPierre buy a multimillion-dollar mansion is definitely NOT part of its "charitable purpose."

And because there is no honor among thieves, the NRA has also been roiled by internal brawls, as "internal coups" briefly displaced LaPierre and replaced him with (I shit you not) Oliver North, who was then swiftly deposed.

The NRA isn't just a terrorist organization. Nor is it just a grift. It is also - and this is VERY important - a tax-exempt charitable nonprofit. Which means that it is very tightly regulated.

In theory.

In practice, it has been largely left alone as it lost more than $64m over three years, paid for execs' fancy meals, vacations, and private jets, guaranteed LaPierre $17m in post-employment benefits without Board approval, and did some way shady accounting with its PR firm.

Finally, the grift has become impossible to ignore, and so the attorney general of the NRA's home state has filed suit to dissolve the organization and force LaPierre to pay back his corrupt gains.

Here's a fun fact: the NRA is headquartered in New York!

New York Attorney General Letitia James is NOT fucking around. And she's got a hell of a case, thanks in large part to the NRA itself: when its internecine struggles spilled over into the courts, warring NRA factions exposed a lot of the organization's darkest secrets.

The timing couldn't be better. The NRA spent tens of millions backing Trump in 2016. Now, they're not just broke - they're also battling for their lives.

Cory provides links to supporting news stories in the thread.