Legal Experts Skeptical Of NY AG’s Plan To Dissolve NRA

New York Attorney General Letitia James is the darling of the anti-gun movement. After all, she’s the one fighting to dissolve the 800-pound gorilla in the room when it comes to gun rights. She’s literally trying to destroy the National Rifle Association.

The problem is, even many anti-gunners are wary of her efforts, as they honestly should be. While much of the news about spending by the leadership sounds bad, the idea of dissolving a group you once called a “terrorist organization” has rightfully struck some as a bad move. After all, what’s to stop someone from going after someone like Planned Parenthood or some other scared organization on the left?

Now, legal experts are weighing in, and they’re skeptical.

University of Pittsburgh law professor Philip Hackney, who worked at the Office of the Chief Counsel of the IRS overseeing the nonprofit sector from 2006 to 2011, said the investigation was appropriate. Hackney said he believed the alleged malfeasance by NRA executives was the driving force behind her dissolution effort.

“I think the NRA officers and directors forced her hand,” he said. Still, he said he would “be surprised” if a court considered the removal of some NRA executives an insufficient solution and instead opted for wholesale dissolution of the organization. Hackney compared the NRA case to cases against the Kamehameha Schools and Adelphi University—both of which had their entire governing boards forcibly removed by government action and had to pay millions in back taxes. Neither was dissolved, though, and both continue to operate today.

Olson said the investigation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in the 1970s and 80s provided a useful example of how much more aggressive James is treating the NRA. The Teamsters were alleged to have been host to an extensive mob-run racketeering effort that covered everything from money laundering to murder. The union eventually agreed to a takeover by government officials that lasted 30 years, but there was no attempt to shut it down. He said that James’s bid to dissolve the NRA amounted to overreach and could taint an otherwise legitimate investigation.

And that last bit really does put this in perspective, doesn’t it?

The Teamsters were alleged to have been a mob front and they weren’t dissolved. Even if everything alleged by the media regarding Wayne LaPierre and others in the NRA’s leadership is true–and this is the same media that routinely argues absolute fantasy when it comes to gun crimes, so they shouldn’t be taken on face value on anything–it’s hardly the same as working hand-in-hand with the mafia.

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