Gun Guys Mess Up
The Gun Guys run a regular mailing list (ostensibly for their fellow petty tyrants) where they tout control fantasies and smear pieces on their own ilk before they get sent to the general public. Today they wrote a screed intended to decry the salary of Wayne LaPierre, putatively the CEO of the NRA:
A million dollars is a lot of money, even when you're talking about the NRA. According to our calculations, that means 35,000 NRA memberships have already been spent, before any gun lobby crony's campaign funds ever see a dime.
No NRA membership money goes to lobbying. Lobbying is paid for solely by donations to the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. The ILA is an independent organization within the NRA which conducts all lobbying activities.
NRA membership money goes into other activities, like training (both for police and private citizens), magazines for the members to read, firearms range development, and firearms competitions.
Of course, they don't mention that there are four million members of the NRA, therefore the “35,000” who pay Wayne's salary are a drop in the bucket. They also don't mention that many members are life members (or beyond—for example, I'm an “endowment” member).
Make no mistake, the NRA is a large organization devoted to teaching people how to be safe with firearms and shoot well. It's the largest police firearms training organization in the world. It promotes hundreds of competitions with the intent of safe, accurate, and fun shooting. But are the members money wasted on Wayne LaPierre? Doesn't the third largest lobby US deserve the finest CEO they can afford?
If you're going to smear an organization, at least get your facts straight.
So, ever wonder why these guys know LaPierre's salary? These anonymous fear and smear campaigners pulled the information from his tax forms! Quick! Alert the ACLU!
Update: The Gun Guys corrected their posting to indicate that they looked at the NRA's Form 990, but the email they sent out said this:
Because according to tax forms obtained by us, the guy's making almost (if not more than) a million dollars a year.
Sounds different, doesn't it?
Josh Poulson
Posted Thursday, May 11 2006 02:47 PM
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