This afternoon, the National Rifle Association announced that its executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, is stepping down at the end of the month.
“With pride in all that we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said in a statement released by the organization. “I’ve been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever.”
During an NRA Board of Directors meeting today in Irving, Texas, NRA President Charles Cotton reported that he accepted LaPierre’s resignation. According to the NRA, LaPierre cited health reasons as a reason for his decision.
Long-time NRA executive and Head of General Operations Andrew Arulanandam will become the interim CEO & EVP of the NRA.
Had the 74-year-old LaPierre stepped down from the NRA in early 2017, shortly after Donald Trump had beaten Hillary Clinton and helped assure a pro-Second Amendment majority on the Supreme Court, LaPierre would be universally hailed as a hero among gun owners everywhere. But the last seven years or so have been some of the most tumultuous and most difficult in the NRA’s history, and LaPierre’s intractable control over the organization, aided by a loyal majority on the NRA’s board of directors, was a major factor in the organization’s difficulties.
Starting at the NRA’s annual meeting in Indianapolis in 2019, the organization has faced a cavalcade of credible allegations of self-dealing and egregious wastes of donor money — ewith some allegations coming from former leaders of the group like Oliver North. LaPierre reportedly made suit purchases from the Zegna store in Beverly Hills between 2004 and 2017 that totaled $274,695.03, and sent the bills to the NRA’s former PR firm, Ackerman McQueen...more
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