Thread by @K_Thomas_Ross

Three More NRA Director Resignations (or Purges)

Eight directors of the National Rifle Association resigned in protest during 2019. Stung by this negative publicity, the NRA has found a way to quietly remove more directors who protest the organization’s corruption & waste

- simply not nominate them for reelection when their terms are up, without explanation. One suspects they imagine no one will notice.

Elections to the NRA Board are a pretense of real choice. They are tightly controlled. The powerful internal Nominating Committee picks virtually all the candidates. One can get on the ballot via a petition process,

but it requires being backed by around 600 active voting members. Since members do not collectively meet except for the annual meeting, obtaining such signatures is (deliberately) difficult. Successful petition candidates are rare.

So not to be nominated is essentially the same as being fired. This system is so clearly a sham that about 6% of eligible voters vote, which makes the process even more incestuous.

This year’s election is currently ongoing. Missing from the ballot, without explanation or comment, are three current directors that would normally automatically be re-nominated. They are Lance Olson, Melanie Pepper & Heidi Washington.

In 2019 many board directors questioned the corruption, self-dealing & lavish expenditures by the executives & many of the other directors of the NRA. Instead of reforming the organization or answering the justified questions,

executives countered by removing the committee assignments of these directors. As much of the work of the NRA is done in committee, removing committee assignments is a way to render ineffective any Board member. So, the Board members resigned.

The Board of Directors, at full strength, has 76 members. Like the U.S Senate, they are in three ‘classes’, 25 elected each year, serving for 3-year terms. The 76th member is chosen by the brass, from the losing candidates, to serve for one year.

(Contrary to MSM reports, famed Iran Contra felon Oliver North did not resign. Instead, he did not run for a second term as president of the Board. Allen West, who called for CEO Wayne LaPierre to resign, to end a “cabal of cronyism”, also did not resign.)

Recycling the Losers

Before 2018 it was rare for anyone to leave the Board, except by death, or by being voted off the Board during the annual meetings.

But the brass also replaces deaths or (formerly rare) mid-term resignations by temporarily appointing losers from last election, to serve until the next election. They may then run for election at the election, to fill the remainder of the term.

So, in each election, 25 are elected for 3-year terms each year, while the others, the replacements, will serve out the one or two-year terms.

Actor R. Lee Ermey died just before the 2018 annual meeting, so the 26th place finisher in 2018, Ronald L. Schmeits, a past NRA president, received the two-year term remaining on his term.

Before all the controversy (we don’t know how much they knew of what was coming)

& the 2019 annual meeting, two directors, William H Allen & actor Tom Selleck, resigned. They were replaced at the 2019 annual meeting by Mark Vaughn & Herb Lanford, to serve out their remaining one-year terms.

Mark Vaughn was a new director, one of the security guards that really did lose Benghazi (unlike HRC), but who re-created himself as a right-wing hero, fighting to defend the ambassador & the consulate. (Conservatives are never consistent with their mythology.)

Herb Lanford, 71, was first elected in 1986, lost his seat in 1992, regained it in 1994, lost again in 2018, but, though he was in 32nd place, got Tom Selleck’s seat.

The eight directors who resigned in 2019 were Dan Boren, Pete Brownell, Richard Childress, Julie Golob, Timothy Knight, Sean Maloney, Craig Morgan & Esther Schneider.

Traditionally, when a director dies or resigns (the latter was rare between elections, & even during elections), he or she is replaced by one of the losing candidates from the last election. Since the election last April, the following 2019 losers have been added as directors:

Paul Babaz of Georgia, a big game killer, financial advisor, gun silencer advocate & lobbyist.

Dave Butz ex-Redskins footballer player, former NRA director, rejected by members in 2019, apparently because he was receiving $400k/year from the NRA as a “consultant”.

Kevin Hogan an Illinois gun dealer & auctioneer who contributes lots of money to NRA affiliates.

Richard Figueroa of Houston, banker, & crony of Governor Greg Abbott.

Mark Robinson, a small-time furniture maker, who is currently running for NC Lt. Governor.

Each of these are running again this time, so that they may complete the term of the person they replaced.

Also running again is 2019’s 76th director, NJ’s Anthony Colandro, who runs suburban NYC gun training sites, to help criminals to become better shooters, thus getting around NYC’s strict gun laws. Another director, Scott Bach, is in the same line of business.

This is the second rush of fresh blood into an organization that tends not to change. (41 of the those on the 2017 Board were on the 2009 Board.). In 2018 the Nominating Committee made the mistake of giving voters what they wanted –

three sexy women with guns, pretty actor Dean Cain, & an arms manufacturer. This resulted in several long-term directors being voted off the Board.

But back on this year’s ballot are old time directors (who got voted off) John Cushman, Robert Wos, Herb Lanford & J. William Carter.

So, despite the loss of so many members, between the appointment of temporary members & the nominations of old directors, 29 of the 39 people nominated have been on NRA Board.
#

@threadreaderapp Unroll, please.