National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre’s civil trial on charges of corruption, brought by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, began Monday. Last week, citing health problems, the influential executive announced he’ll step down at the end of this month.
For those invested in establishing a limitless access to the gun consumer market, LaPierre was worth every penny.
James accuses LaPierre and other NRA officials of using the nonprofit organization as a “personal piggy bank” by drawing millions from members’ dues for lavish shopping sprees and luxurious vacations. They’re unlikely to admit as much today, but for those invested in expanding gun rights and establishing a limitless access to the gun consumer market, LaPierre was worth every penny. He was worth every Zegna suit, every Bahamas junket and even more. When it comes to making America the unparalleled gun country it is today, nobody outdid LaPierre’s lobbying, certainly not in the last three decades and perhaps not throughout U.S. history.
LaPierre’s resignation brings to a close an extraordinary era of growth for America’s most powerful consumer lobby, one during which the nation’s already unequaled gun stockpile doubled. When he assumed control of the NRA in 1991, there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 million guns in the U.S. Today there are more than 400 million. LaPierre helped supercharge the gunning of America, even as he and the NRA skillfully blamed America’s gun problem on everyone but themselves.
Beyond the alleged corruption, LaPierre will be remembered for many things, including his ignominious rhetoric. After the disastrous 1993 federal siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he described federal agents as “jack-booted thugs” and “armed terrorists.” Former President George H.W. Bush, a lifetime NRA member, resigned from the organization in disgust. After a gunman murdered 20 children and six adults at Sandy…
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