{"id":58071,"date":"2020-08-11T11:06:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T16:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=58071"},"modified":"2020-08-11T11:14:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T16:14:02","slug":"58071","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=58071","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Whew. When you’ve lost the Washington Post<\/em>…………<\/p>\n

\n

The NRA is a cesspool. That doesn\u2019t mean it should be dissolved.<\/a><\/p>\n

Opinion by Ruth Marcus
\n\u21d2 Deputy editorial page editor\u21d0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I loathe the National Rifle Association. With its reflexive opposition to even the mildest gun regulation, it is complicit in the deaths of thousands.<\/p>\n

And yet, I worry that New York Attorney General Letitia James has gone too far in her bid to dissolve the organization. Even assuming that the facts laid out in the state\u2019s lawsuit against the NRA are true \u2014 and I believe every word about chief executive Wayne LaPierre\u2019s jaw-dropping greed \u2014 the right remedy is fixing the NRA, not dismantling it.<\/p>\n

The NRA has a First Amendment right to its misguided understanding of the Second. Forcing its dissolution has disturbing implications \u2014 made even more disturbing by the fact that the attorney general seeking that step is a Democrat who vowed during her campaign to \u201ctake on the NRA\u201d and labeled it a \u201cterrorist organization.\u201d In this country, we don\u2019t go after entities because of what they advocate.<\/p>\n

James\u2019s lawsuit against the NRA does not mention ideology, even if it strains credulity to think that James would have gone after the ACLU or Planned Parenthood with equal zeal if there were similar facts. Still, the facts as alleged are jaw-dropping \u2014 and, if you were a donor who dug deep in defense of gun rights, should be enraging.<\/p>\n

The NRA is chartered in New York as a not-for-profit. That being the case, it is not just James\u2019s right to investigate whether the organization behaved properly; it\u2019s her duty. And James has compiled more than enough evidence to justify her description of the NRA as \u201ca breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality\u201d and to scorch its executives for having \u201clooted\u201d NRA assets.<\/p>\n

The 164-page complaint depicts LaPierre treating the organization as a personal piggy bank for himself, his family and a small group of allies. \u201cContrary to his statutory duties of care, loyalty and obedience to the mission of the charity, LaPierre has undertaken a series of actions to consolidate his position; to exploit that position for his personal benefit and that of his family; to continue, by use of a secret \u2018poison pill contract,\u2019 his employment even after removal and ensuring NRA income for life; and to intimidate, punish, and expel anyone at a senior level who raised concerns about his conduct,\u201d the complaint says.<\/p>\n

AD<\/p>\n

So by all means: Get rid of LaPierre and his top lieutenants. Make them repay any ill-gotten gains. Install a new board. Refer matters to the appropriate authorities: The Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors come to mind. Treat the NRA like a corrupt labor union, with strict new internal controls and intensive supervision.<\/p>\n

But dissolution? This is within the attorney general\u2019s powers to seek, and it has happened before, most notably to the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the pseudo-charity operated by the president and his family. James\u2019s predecessor, Barbara Underwood, accused the foundation of \u201cfunctioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump\u2019s business and political interests,\u201d and it agreed in 2018 to shut down and to distribute its remaining assets.<\/p>\n

But there is an enormous difference between a tiny and moribund operation like the Trump Foundation and a behemoth on the scale of the NRA, which claims 5 million members. New York has shut down other charities \u2014 cancer scams and the like \u2014 but this would be a corporate death sentence of a different magnitude. Dissolution would mean taking whatever assets of the NRA remain and distributing them to like organizations; the NRA could then set up shop elsewhere.<\/p>\n

AD<\/p>\n

That is an outcome that has experts in the field uneasy \u2014 and doubting that a judge will end up agreeing. \u201cI don\u2019t fault the attorney general for going for dissolution in this case,\u201d Philip Hackney, a University of Pittsburgh expert in nonprofit law, told me, citing the depiction of \u201ca long, substantial fraud that goes to the entirety of the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, he said, it\u2019s necessary to consider the \u201cincredible importance\u201d to many Americans of the NRA\u2019s mission to protect gun rights. \u201cIn weighing those two things, if I\u2019m a judge I\u2019m not going to dissolve this organization,\u201d Hackney said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the request might be as much for leverage as it is a serious bid to dismantle the organization. Dissolution is \u201cone of the weapons in her quiver, and if she doesn\u2019t threaten to use it here, you would probably never use it, and it would make it harder for her to get the settlement that she wants,\u201d Pace Law School professor James Fishman said of James.<\/p>\n

AD<\/p>\n

Count me uncomfortable. Prosecutors shouldn\u2019t seek sentences they think would be excessive because they figure the judge will end up going easier on the defendant. And while other groups aren\u2019t likely to present such egregious fact patterns, consider the threat of a conservative attorney general going after a disfavored liberal group.<\/p>\n

This country would be a better, safer place without the NRA. Dissolving it isn\u2019t the way to get there<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whew. When you’ve lost the Washington Post………… The NRA is a cesspool. That doesn\u2019t mean it should be dissolved. Opinion by Ruth Marcus \u21d2 Deputy editorial page editor\u21d0 I loathe the National Rifle Association. With its reflexive opposition to even the mildest gun regulation, it is complicit in the deaths of thousands. And yet, I … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-o-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58074,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58071\/revisions\/58074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}