Wayne LaPierre and the NRA: A timeline

The National Rifle Association announced Friday that longtime president Wayne LaPierre will step down at the end of this month, marking the end of an era in which the association continues to face legal and financial troubles.

Long maligned by gun control activists and always controversial, Mr. LaPierre has been the group's face in Washington for more than 30 years.

seize power

Mr. LaPierre is not the type of person you would typically expect to lead a gun rights organization. He grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, in a gun-free home and did not purchase his first gun until after college.

Mr. LaPierre bounced between political positions in Democratic circles in Virginia and Massachusetts, once turning down a job from then-House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-Mass.), and then joining the NRA in 1978. Joined the lobbying team.

In his 2021 important history of the organization, Journalist Tim Mack said: Lapierre is described as a “bookworm” and “a clumsy, dumb type of person.”

However, he was considered very capable by his colleagues and quickly rose through the ranks of the group. Within just a few years, he was promoted to head of his NRA's state lobbying division, then its federal lobbying division.

“When he took over, this organization was sliding into the abyss, but he stabilized it, turned it around, and started building it,” said former NRA President Marion Hammer. 1995 Los Angeles Times Special Feature.

Although LaPierre had a reputation for being gregarious, awkward, lacking in fashion sense and pushy, she still managed to win over Washington politicians on behalf of gun rights causes, Mack said.

He reluctantly accepted the CEO job in 1991 when no other candidates emerged. Even in a 1995 LA Times feature, he expressed little confidence in his work and joked that the NRA board would soon fire him.

It's no secret that LaPierre didn't even like shooting guns, once showing up to skeet shootings with an embarrassingly rusty shotgun, but a few years later he was too clumsy with his gun safety. Mack wrote that his weapon was confiscated during the video recording.

“He represents the true departure of the NRA,” author Osha Gray Davidson, who wrote a 1993 book on the history of the NRA, told the LA Times. “He's the first leader of the NRA who doesn't come from the shooting sports or hunting field. He's a politician.”

a Video leaked to New Yorker In 2021, Lapierre participated in a trophy hunt in Africa, where he was filmed attempting to kill an elephant. After nervously defeating the elephant, he missed three decisive shots and was reprimanded by his guide.

“Wayne would be found far more often with legal pads than with a pistol,” Mack wrote. “He views guns through the lens of politics. Not as a gun enthusiast, but as a political junkie.”

king maker

His early years at the helm of the NRA were marked by infighting and legislative difficulties. The first hurdle was the 1991 Brady bill, named after the press secretary who was paralyzed during an assassination attempt on President Reagan.

For the first time, it required federal background checks for gun purchases, but faced fierce opposition from the NRA. Although the bill passed, the group won a concession to eliminate a proposed five-day waiting period before purchasing weapons and instead opt for instant background checks.

Then came the Assault Weapons Ban Act of 1994. This is a landmark bill that could seriously hinder gun enthusiasts. However, with support from the NRA, a sunset clause was added to the weapons ban in the 1994 crime bill, which expired in 2004. Two decades later, despite efforts by Democrats, there is little political will to re-enact the law.

The NRA reached its apogee in the 2000s and 2010s after spending scandals and policy debates over a growing number of school shootings.

Mr. LaPierre is perhaps the head of the most powerful lobby in Washington, and he has used his power to force gun policies on dozens of politicians. Through its extremist membership and large political contributions, the NRA can sink candidates by supporting rivals.

The group has also spent hundreds of millions of dollars in litigation, challenging gun laws in nearly every state.

a disappearing empire

Cracks began to appear in the late 2010s and into the last decade. As former President Trump took center stage in Republican politics, gun control advocacy groups received less attention. Although the NRA remained successful in pursuing litigation, its influence was no longer what it had been.

Membership numbers began to decline, and along with that, donations began to come in.

association Lost approximately 500,000 members in 2021-22, according to the gun violence news nonprofit The Trace.that Raised just $213 million According to the Washington nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, 2022 will reach about half of the 2016 total.

This coincided with an increase in litigation costs. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a lawsuit against the NRA in 2021, alleging that LaPierre and other executives improperly spent millions of dollars in association funds on personal luxuries.

That included Caribbean vacations, private jet trips, lavish dinners, and even LaPierre's penchant for gourmet ice cream.

After an 18-month investigation, James said the NRA fostered a “culture of self-handling, mismanagement, and negligent oversight” that cost the group $64 million over three years. She sought to dissolve the entire organization in a lawsuit, but a state judge dropped that request last year.

Resignation

LaPierre's announcement of his resignation came just three days before the New York trial began. He remains a defendant in the case and denies his wrongdoing.

His resignation was somewhat unexpected, but the 74-year-old chief cited health reasons as the reason for his resignation.

In the meantime, the NRA will be led by longtime executive and general affairs director Andrew Arulanandam, the group announced Friday.

Ms. LaPierre now has the opportunity to carry out the retirement plan she laid out in the Los Angeles Times in 1995, and has reportedly repeated to friends frequently ever since: open an ice cream shop in northern Maine. That's what it is.