The National Rifle Association filed for bankruptcy on Friday.
In a letter to members, Wayne LaPierre, the head of the notorious arms lobby group, wrote: “The plan aims to optimize costs and expenses, pursue pending litigation in a coordinated and structured manner and obtain many financial and strategic advantages.”
The group will apparently move from the “toxic New York political environment”, where it is now registered as a non-profit organization, to Texas. It is physically based in Fairfax, Virginia. In turn, LaPierre referred to the bankruptcy and reinstatement request in the State of the Solitary Star as a “restructuring plan”.
The virulently pro-arms organization was plagued by infighting among its executive ranks and legal problems last year and was sued for fraud by New York Attorney General Letitia James in August. The attorney general claims that senior executives used millions in NRA funds for personal purchases, such as private jets, and are trying to dissolve the organization. The NRA counterattacked. Washington, DC Attorney General Karl Racine also sued the NRA’s charitable arm for alleged misuse of donations.
James responded to Friday’s news in a statement: “The alleged financial situation of the NRA has finally reached its moral status: bankruptcy.”
LaPierre wrote on Friday that Texas “thanks the contributions of the NRA”, where it has 400,000 members.
LaPierre tried hard to frame “Chapter 11 voluntary procedures” as a positive development, despite years of difficult financial news.
The organization’s bankruptcy court petition listed assets and liabilities of up to $ 500 million each, reports Bloomberg. The NRA laid off dozens of employees and cut pay for dozens more in May 2020 because the coronavirus pandemic hampered its fundraising efforts in person. In a 2018 court case, the organization wrote that regulatory challenges, especially in New York, can make it “incapable of existing”. In the same process, the NRA revealed that it had spent its budget at $ 46 million.
“You know that our opponents will try to take advantage of this news and distort the truth,” wrote LaPierre on Friday. “Don’t believe what you read about our enemies. The NRA is not ‘bankrupt’ or ‘exiting the market’. The NRA is not insolvent. We are as financially strong as we have been in recent years. “