Tag: NRA

NRA chief sought purchase of $6 million mansion in wake of Parkland shooting

Washington Post logoThe chief executive of the National Rifle Association sought to have the nonprofit organization buy him a luxury mansion last year after a mass shooting at a Florida high school, selecting a French country-style estate in a gated Dallas-area golf club, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.

Wayne LaPierre, the longtime head of the NRA, told associates he was worried about being targeted and needed a more secure place to live after 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the people said.

LaPierre and his wife, Susan, were intensely involved in the selection of the property, rejecting an upscale high rise in Dallas with numerous security features in favor of a 10,000-square-foot estate with lakefront and golf course views in Westlake, Tex., on the market for about $6 million, according to emails and text messages described to The Washington Post.

View the complete August 7 article by Carol D. Leonnig and Beth Reinhard on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans hide behind Trump in gun debate

GOP lawmakers are sticking with the president and the NRA.

President Donald Trump briefly raised eyebrows Monday when he tweeted an endorsement of stronger background checks, tied to immigration reform, after the nightmarish mass shootings over the weekend.

But skeptical Republicans familiar with Trump’s mercurial nature didn’t rush out to embrace the idea.

View the complete August 5 article by Melanie Zanona, Marianne Levine and Sarah Ferris on the Politico website here.

Mass shootings test power of an NRA in turmoil

The Hill logoMass shootings in Texas and Ohio that left 31 people dead over the weekend are raising new calls for background checks on gun sales, testing the power of a National Rifle Association plagued by months of internal turmoil.

Gun reformers on Capitol Hill, long frustrated by the gun lobby’s power to block tougher laws, believe they have a new opportunity given the NRA’s perceived weakened state.

The NRA is “not as powerful” as it was, Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), who co-authored a bipartisan background checks bill with Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), said in a phone interview with The Hill on Monday.

View the complete August 5 article by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Republicans Fear NRA Turmoil Will Hurt Trump’s Re-Election Chances

Republicans are concerned that the seemingly never-ending parade of scandals at the National Rifle Association could seriously hurt Trump’s reelection efforts.

This week Politico reported on GOP concerns about the NRA, which has been a pivotal part of the Republican right’s vote mobilization efforts in the past.

“The turmoil is fueling fears that the organization will be profoundly diminished heading into the election, leaving the Republican Party with a gaping hole in its political machinery,” Politico noted.

The outlet reported that Republicans are already raising alarms and asking the NRA to come clean with its plans for 2020 so they can address possible deficiencies before the race begins in earnest.

View the complete July 6 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

NRA money flowed to board members amid allegedly lavish spending by top officials and vendors

A former pro football player who serves on the National Rifle Association board was paid $400,000 by the group in recent years for public outreach and firearms training. Another board member, a writer in New Mexico, collected more than $28,000 for articles in NRA publications. Yet another board member sold ammunition from his private company to the NRA for an undisclosed sum.

The NRA, which has been rocked by allegations of exorbitant spending by top executives, also directed money in recent years that went to board members — the very people tasked with overseeing the organization’s finances.

In all, 18 members of the NRA’s 76-member board, who are not paid as directors, collected money from the group during the past three years, according to tax filings, state charitable reports and NRA correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post.

View the complete June 9 article by Beth Reinhard, Katie Zezima, Tom Hamburger and Carol D. Leonnig on The Washington Post website here.

Trump gets powerful new rival in Letitia James

President Trump has a new and powerful rival in Letitia James, the first woman and the first African American to serve as New York’s attorney general.

In just four months, James (D) has emerged as one of the most aggressive and ambitious litigators in the country.

She’s filed suit against or launched investigations into some of the most dominant special interests in the country, from the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma and its owners the Sackler family to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Facebook.

View the complete May 2 article by Reid Wilson on The Hill website here.

Guns, Lies, and Fear

Exposing the NRA’s Messaging Playbook

Overview

The National Rifle Association uses messaging strategies employed by dictators and demagogues to advance its gun rights narrative within the United States.

Introduution and Summary

“Our Second Amendment is freedom’s most valuable, most cherished, most irreplaceable idea. History proves it. When you ignore the right of good people to own firearms to protect their freedom, you become the enablers of future tyrants whose regimes will destroy millions and millions of defenseless lives.”1

 – Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO, National Rifle Association Continue reading “Guns, Lies, and Fear”

Trump tells NRA he’s pulling US from arms treaty

President Trump on Friday announced he is withdrawing U.S. support for an international arms-trade treaty, the administration’s latest move to distance the country from global agreements and institutions.

Speaking at a National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Indianapolis, Trump said he would “never” ratify the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty that was signed by former President Obama in 2013.

“Under my administration, we will never surrender American sovereignty to anyone,” Trump told the group, which erupted in applause. “We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedoms.”

View the complete April 26 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Guns, Lies, and Fear

Exposing the NRA’s Messaging Playbook

Introduction and summary

“Our Second Amendment is freedom’s most valuable, most cherished, most irreplaceable idea. History proves it. When you ignore the right of good people to own firearms to protect their freedom, you become the enablers of future tyrants whose regimes will destroy millions and millions of defenseless lives.”1

 – Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO, National Rifle Association

The National Rifle Association (NRA), an organization originally established in 1871 to train hunters and marksmen on gun use and safety, has transformed into one of the most effective political lobbies in modern American history. The group advocates for gun rights, resisting any encroachment on what it deems to be an inalienable right to unhindered, unregulated gun ownership. To advance its mission, the NRA deploys a disinformation campaign reliant on fearmongering and the systematic discreditation of opposition voices in order to secure its position as a powerful lobbyist for the gun industry. The NRA has masterfully constructed a narrative based on gun rights propaganda, evoking images of a society devoid of rule of law and under constant threat of attack from an unidentified but ever-present enemy.

Due to the insidious nature of this messaging approach, the NRA has successfully embedded its false narrative throughout much of the country. By deploying a carefully crafted campaign of misinformation, deception, and confusion, the NRA has both undermined legitimate arguments for common-sense gun law reform and made it substantially more difficult for its emotive, provocative propaganda to be countered with fact and reason. In this way, the NRA’s tactics are deceitful not only because they falsely allege to protect American freedoms but also because they mirror fundamentally un-American sources. The propaganda machine of the NRA is similar to that of authoritarian and undemocratic political regimes around the world that deploy disinformation campaigns to secure control over public discourse in their nations, enabling autocrats to maintain a vice grip over information and ensure their power is unchecked and unquestioned.

View the complete April 24 article by Rukmani Bhatia on the Center for American Progress website here.

Maria Butina acted as an ‘access agent’ recruiting willing Republicans — and she wasn’t alone: sentencing documents

On Friday, the government filed sentencing guidelines for Russian agent Maria Butina. Despite speculation that Butina’s connections with the NRA and Republican politicians might net her no more than a suspended sentence and a deportation back to Russia—where she can expect something of a hero’s welcome—the government instead asked for an 18-month sentence on a single count of conspiracy. They describe her as “not a spy in the traditional sense of trying to gain access to classified information to send back to her home country” but insist that Butina’s actions were “for the benefit of the Russian Federation, and those actions had the potential to damage the national security of the United States.”

The sentencing document details both Butina’s actions, how they compare to others sentenced for the same crime, and why the government is seeking a sentence solidly in the middle of the potential range. But appended to the sentencing guidelines is an addendum authored by the former head of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. And that addendum doesn’t just explain why Butina’s actions are significant, they provide a window into something that has so far gone almost without mention in the post-Mueller report period—the counterintelligence investigation of Russian actions. Continue reading “Maria Butina acted as an ‘access agent’ recruiting willing Republicans — and she wasn’t alone: sentencing documents”