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Unchecked Power: Wayne LaPierre’s Lavish Lifestyle Corrodes NRA’s Crucial Mission

National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre comes under fire for lavish spending on his own luxurious lifestyle, and board Members depart. Is there a reasonable, work-related justification, for LaPierre’s $5 million mansion? What happens when a principle-based organization grants unchecked authority to a single individual?

Unchecked Power: Wayne LaPierre's Lavish Lifestyle Corrodes NRA's Crucial Mission

National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre comes under fire for lavish spending on his own luxurious lifestyle, and board Members depart. Is there a reasonable, work-related justification, for LaPierre’s $5 million mansion? What happens when a principle-based organization grants unchecked authority to a single individual? Can dues-paying Members save this crucial mission before unchecked power corrodes it completely?

21 replies on “Unchecked Power: Wayne LaPierre’s Lavish Lifestyle Corrodes NRA’s Crucial Mission”

LaPierre should have taken North’s proposition, and stepped down with grace. Now it looks like LaPierre is going down, and will take the nearly 150 year old organization down with him. I certainly don’t plan to renew.

This reminds me of the time the president of United Way was caught using its funds to support his lavish lifestyle. I have not given a dime to United Way since, and now check the administrative costs and salaries of its highest paid members of a charity before giving.

I’ve been a member of the NRA for a long time, as it is the only organization that has any chutzpah to fight for our 2nd Amendment, and I have always felt the 2nd Amendment is the one that ensures all the rest. I have no doubt at all that if and when the socialist progressives try to do away with the 2A, civil war will be imminent. JUst as I have no doubt of who will win it (the ones with the guns). I see this potential growing with every mass shooting, with the rise of the radical Left and the realization by the Right that they will eventually lose any ability to place a president in power if they lose the electoral college and cannot stop illegal immigration and voter fraud by the Left. The first and primary purpose of the 2A is to fight a tyrannical government. The second and third are for personal self-defense and for recreational shooting and hunting. I still fully support the NRA and all three purposes. That said, the NRA is like a great old tree that has started to rot from within, and we need to do some pruning. Wayne LaPierre did great work with Charleton Heston and he has served long and well, but I fully agree with you guys that it is time for him to retire and go away. None of us gave our hard-earned money so Lapierre could be wealthy. That money is to fight for our gun rights and to train people in the safe use of firearms. One of the problems with NRA TV, which I liked and supported even though it wasn’t actually a part of the NRA, was that it got off topic. It became more anti-Left than pro-gun, and while I agreed with the anti-Left outlook, that isn’t the primary purpose of the NRA. Its about gun rights, not anti-Left efforts. NRA TV confused that, and internal problems at NRA headquarters led to a parting of ways with NRA TV (and I still miss NRA TV). But people are correct when they complain that the NRA was nickel and diming us to death. Every month was a new request for money, for the “most serious fight of all time” every month, even if you were a life member. I had no problem contributing to fight the gun grabbers in any way I could, because the 2A is our freedom, but I never agreed to buy Lapierre a mansion or swell his personal coffers. You know there are problems at HQ when guys like Chris Cox and Ollie North leave and only Lapierre is left. We members needs to hold the board of directors accountable: Lapierre needs to go, and the fight must return to stopping violation of our Constitutional rights. We need to refresh the tree of leadership at the NRA and keep our purpose clear; to keep our guns so we never have to refresh the tree of liberty, as Jefferson so aptly noted, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. But the 2A ensures we have the option for the latter, and it needs to be fought for. The NRA can do it, but it needs to clean house first. Humans are fallible. If an organization as mission-oriented as the NRA can have this problem, how can one as big as the government not have even larger ones? Sorry Wayne, you need to go for the betterment of the whole.

Bill, I’ve been waiting to hear you weigh in on the NRA. I expected it to happen via a few minutes in The Stratosphere Lounge, and I’m glad we got to hear from the entire gang instead.

I agree that Wayne needs to go, with the thanks of the NRA for his work leading the organization. I have also grown weary of the constant requests for funds or the upgrade to a “new” level of lifetime membership. So, basically, I don’t give them money unless I think it is time to give them a cash infusion for the battle at hand.

That all being said, I will not “quit the NRA”. They do a lot of good work in supporting lawsuits to protect the second amendment. And in politics, numbers count. Having 5-odd million members makes the NRA a force to be reckoned with. I live in South Dakota, Most political offices are decided by a few thousand votes. Organizing a few thousand members in the state to send letters to our Rep, Senator, Governor, etc. sends a VERY loud message to them.

I think the second amendment is important enough that we need all hands on deck. The NRA and the other 2A organizations need as many members as possible. So, join them all. Give extra to the one you like and trash the requests from the others when you get them. Don’t read it, just trash it if they bug you that much. But at least get those number up and pay the minimum to be counted. And when you send a letter to your Rep/Senator/Governor/President, make sure you mention your membership in your preferred organization. Unless you are AOC, it does make a difference!

Well thought out response. I have been a life-member of the NRA for several decades. I also sincerely believe that the “numbers” that are related to the NRA are extremely important as the political crowd can be pushed by the weight behind the NRA’s positions.

However, living in California is like living in an alternative universe when it comes to gun issues. I have found that state and local entities (California Gun Rights Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition for example) are more worthy of current donations as they are actively involved in 2A litigation (the only path in California).

In addition, we have a local county-wide group (San Diego County Gun Owners PAC) that actively works to identify and support candidates for County Supervisors, the Sheriff, City Council members, Mayors, School Board members, etc. With this approach, SDCGO was able to bring our current Sheriff around to modifying their CCW process to allow a significant increase in the issuing of CCW licenses (California is a “may issue” state where the Sheriff’s policies drive the number of approvals). This local approach has begun to spread to other counties due to the positive results. Each state must find the best way to pressure your government in order to drive change.

I stopped being an NRA Member (and also a member of some other groups) because I felt like they spent my whole membership contribution on re-soliciting me for even MORE money. I guess I could accept that if it were being done via email, but postal mail is expensive and they sent TONS of it. Ridiculous.
(And good wrap-up, Scott.)

NAGR is still trying to get me to contribute and that’s all they seem to want, is more money. They do nothing else.

I forget where I read it or in what context, so this might be totally fictional and wholly incorrect, but one of the purposes of the court jester in past times was to be the one person who could mock the leader (king, prince, duke, baron, etc) and give him a measure of humility and humanity.

It seems that every board of any organization of any size needs a designated NO person. Someone who has the job to come up with some way to call an idea, a suggestion, a marketing campaign “Stupid”. We have so many of these “What were they thinking!?!?” moments where we say “Did no one think this would be a bad idea?” that it seems corporate and organization boards need a court jester.

I appreciate the discussion and Scott’s push at the end.

I will only point out that, generally, the head of the teacher’s union in any given state makes several times what the governor of that state makes.

This is not to justify La Pierre’s behavior, but rather to point out that this is typical human behavior. It is a symptom of becoming one of the elites rather than fighting against them.
Bernie is a great example of this.

I’ve been a member for a couple of decades now, and have a ,membership good till 2029. These people don’t even seem to know I’m a member because they keep asking me to join. What?

You’re a Member through 2029? That’s great, and you are an inspiration for us all!
Oh, wait a minute – you’re not talking about being a member at Billwhittle.com, you mean being an NRA member, don’t you?
Nevermind! =8^)

First, there was the military industrial complex. Then came the abortion industrial complex. Now, there is the gun rights industrial complex. The whole idea of these complexes is to maintain a status quo. After all, if there were no more wars, there would be no need for a military war machine industry. And if abortion were anathema to the whole of humanity, there would be no need for a pro-life protest complex. And if everyone realized the reality of evil and the human right to defend one’s self, there would be no need for a Second Amendment rights complex enabling Wayne LaPierre’s lavish lifestyle. In other words, LaPierre’s best friends are gun ban lunatics.

As a dues-paying member of Bill Whittle dot com, the optics tell me you have nowhere near 5 million bucks or members! That’s okay; just don’t inflate your subscription numbers like the newspapers have done for so long.

I learned the hard way to be prepared to receive hate from the audience you bring this “NRA need to make sure their house is in order” message in. There are a lot of people out there who take it as a personal attack. Personally, I think all NRA members and supporters need to be aware and informed. Thank you for this succinct, tactful message. It gives people enough to go find out more if they are concerned, and does not come across like hair on fire panic.

Scott, your message at the end to take a look at your own life and figure out what is going on with orgs you support is good and really hits home for me. Hate to say it but you can start to become a little jaded after a couple times getting burned.

Scott, I love the way you wrap up your sessions with words of insight and encouragement in a positive direction. Sometimes we talk and complain. You come in with the old-fashioned charm of how to do things better and apply it to our lives. That may be poorly said, but thank you for your words.

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