10 Things You Need To Know About the NRA

Here's what we're up against, and yes, it is formidable.

Maria Butina, Russian Mata Hari of the gun lobby

There is one reason, and one reason only, why we have zero gun control in the United States: the National Rifle Association or NRA.

They own the Republican Party. They are partially funded by dark money from the Russian government—the same government that is committing genocide in Ukraine. They have strayed far from their original mission, which was to teach firearm safety; now, they are a malevolent force wielding unheard of power, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars, a laughably small percentage of which comes from actual members. It is an institution of known financial malfeasance and duplicity, willing to break any law if it keeps the engines of obscene profit running smoothly. They are the reason 19 children and two beloved educators were killed in Uvalde this week. They are the enemy you can actually see.

The following facts, which I will support with documentary evidence, are shocking. But the queasy feeling you will be left with by the end of this article must be turned into action. By action, I mean voting in the midterms, making sure you are legally able to vote in the midterms (this goes double if you are Black or Hispanic), and making sure you are voting straight-ticket Democrat. I am recommending this not out of political ideology but because the Democrats accept almost no money from the NRA. A vote for a Republican is, at this point, a vote for the NRA.

Here is what we know so far about the NRA’s illegal activities during the last ten years. It is by no means a comprehensive list, but will give you a rough idea of what they’ve been up to and why no gun reform is possible until they are completely dismantled.

1. The NRA knows that democratic elections will be their undoing, which is why they’ve turned their energies toward the judiciary. Through a dizzying network of dark money nonprofits and limited liability companies, they have pumped millions of dollars into sophisticated and single-minded campaigns to influence judicial nominations. Estimates are that at least $40 million in dark money was spent to influence the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Comparable amounts were likely spent on advertising and lobbying campaigns to block Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination and to advocate for Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. The NRA knows that Judges Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett will usher in a shockingly radical pro-corporate, anti-regulatory agenda. The NRA alone spent $1 million on ads supporting Kavanaugh’s confirmation, saying Kavanaugh was selected “to break the tie” on guns-rights cases.
   
   This isn’t democracy. It’s subversion. With the voting demographics of America changing not in their favor, right-wingers and the elected officials who represent them are waging all-out war against elections. Now that they have the Supreme Court sewn up, it is only a matter of time before they are able to legally override the will of the people and rule by judicial fiat. As always, we’re looking in one direction (“election fraud”) while they’re busy force-feeding millions of dollars into various pipelines in order to secure through our federal judiciary what they cannot accomplish through democratic elections.

2. As NRA’s revenue dropped, CEO Wayne LaPierre took millions of dollars from NRA’s charities and funded political groups—and himself. New York Attorney General Letitia James has been dogged in her attempts to expose the shocking amount of graft and self-dealing perpetrated by CEO Wayne LaPierre, an investigation which is ongoing. LaPierre, acting on behalf of the NRA, filed for bankruptcy on January 15, 2021, in the Northern District of Texas, in a craven attempt to avoid accountability. The plan backfired. But the ensuing trial revealed that LaPierre took luxury trips aboard the yachts of rich friends who had lucrative contracts with the NRA. These yacht vacations also served as refuge when public outrage over school shootings grew especially irksome to him. The board president admitted to shredding and burning documents after being “told they could be subpoenaed and used.”  There were private jets, six-figure suits, and a traveling “glam squad” for LaPierre’s wife.
   
   According to Tim Mak’s must-read book, Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA, “Wayne's salary jumped from $200,000 in the mid-1990s to $2.2 million in 2018. Of the more than six hundred nonprofit organizations tracked by CharityWatch, Wayne is the fifth-highest-paid nonprofit leader in the country."
   

   

   When confronted in court about mysterious charges made with an American Express card during a trip to Italy, LaPierre first claimed ignorance, insisting he didn’t know whether a card had been issued. When that failed to persuade the court, he blamed hackers.
   

3. According to Tim Mak, LaPierre isn’t a fan of guns and doesn’t like hunting. This video shows how LaPierre was too inept to deliver a kill shot to a suffering elephant after three tries during a luxury hunting trip in Botswana. I offer this video with a massive trigger warning. I myself was unable to watch it all the way through. LaPierre’s sociopathic disregard for the feelings of a sentient creature made me physically ill.
   
   Wife Susan cut off the elephant’s tail, by the way, waving it in the air and shouting, “Victory! That’s my elephant tail. Way cool.”
   

   

   Wayne and Susan LaPierre beholding their spoils in Botswana.

4. Investigations by the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed that Russia has developed and exploited ties with the NRA to influence American politics. Indeed, Russia classified the NRA as a “foreign asset” in the months leading up to the 2016 election, and likely beyond. The connections are there. The NRA spent over $30 million to elect Donald J. Trump as president—investigators would like to know how much of that money came from Russia. Russian oligarch and Putin-whisperer Aleksandr Torshin, a lifelong NRA member, is suspected of funneling most of that money through the NRA to benefit Trump. Foreign agent Maria Butina (her hilarious propaganda video, posted below, is well worth watching), worked as an assistant to Torshin. Federal prosecutors say that Butina’s very public support of guns, Trump, and the Republican Party was a ruse to cover up her real agenda of furthering Russia’s interests within the NRA.

5. Thanks to Citizens United, the NRA is legally protected by its tax code designation as a “social welfare” organization—exempt from having to disclose its donors. This means the NRA is tax-exempt and “non-profit.” Through SuperPACs like the one linked to Karl Rove and a “chamber of commerce” controlled by the Koch Brothers, millions have been steered into the NRA to advance the GOP cause of no gun control and no regulation. FBI investigators claim the NRA became a conduit for Russian cash linked to the Kremlin.

6. Putin considers private gun ownership ludicrous—why wouldn’t he? So the question is, why go to all this effort to infiltrate the NRA? It is this writer’s considered opinion, one shared by many others who are far more knowledgeable on the subject than I am, that the NRA was and is a particularly useful conduit for dark money, money can then be used to influence politicians, private citizens, and campaigns. Foreign campaign donations are illegal, even when they are effectively laundered through a “revered icon” like a cash-addicted NRA.

7. There are additional benefits to courting the NRA as far as Russia is concerned. Fewer issues are more explosive in the United States than rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. By redeploying their Cold War tactics of “divide and conquer,” they sow all the seeds of dissent their hearts desire. The same Russians that were linked to interference in the 2016 election, sweeping Trump to victory, set into motion ambitious plans to stoke unrest and violence within the United States.

8. The NRA paid a Second Amendment activist to write favorable amicus briefs to the Supreme Court, supporting cases that potentially impacted their interests. An amicus brief is a legal document supplied to the court containing advice or information from a person or organization that is not directly involved in the case under consideration by the court. The problem is, this activist did not disclose the source of his funds, which allowed the NRA to conceal its efforts from judges and the public. That’s terribly illegal, by the way. The NRA knows it. But this offers us further insight into just how far they are willing to go to subvert democracy.

   
   The NRA owns the Republican Party. Even a cursory look at www.opensecrets.org, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that tracks money, shows just how deeply the NRA has infiltrated politics.

• Mitt Romney, Utah: $13,647,676

• Richard Burr, North Carolina: $6,987,380

• Roy Blunt, Missouri: $4,555,722

• Thom Tillis, North Carolina: $4,421,333

• Cory Gardner, Colorado: $3,939,199

• Marco Rubio, Florida: $3,303,355

• Joni Ernst, Iowa: $3,124,773

• Rob Portman, Ohio: $3,063,327

• Todd C. Young, Indiana: $2,897,582

• Bill Cassidy, Louisiana: $2,867,074

10. The Trace is the only newsroom dedicated to covering gun violence. You can read more about their work here, and I urge you to make a donation, if possible.

We have a problem, America. That problem is money in politics, and a wholly coopted Supreme Court that is all too willing to rule in favor of the special interests, like the NRA, that brought them to power. Until we take back a corruptible and now corrupted democracy, shootings like the one in Uvalde will continue to happen.

They won’t stop themselves. The only ones who can stop them are US.

Weigh in. I want to hear from you. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Copyright © 2022 Stacey Eskelin