NRA head steps down days before corruption trial | DW News

In other news the head of the US National Rifle Association has resigned just days before the start of a corruption trial Wayne laier blamed Health worries for his decision to stand down after more than three decades the NRA and laier faced trial in New York next week on corruption charges laier is

Accused of taking millions of dollars from the gun rights organization for perks including Safari trips and private jet flights I’d like to welcome Drew Stevenson he’s a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston Texas welcome to DW uh tell us how significant is this resignation from Wayne

Laier well it has significance both for the organization and for the upcoming trial the m one of the most important remedies that the government is seeking in the trial is actually his removal from his position of leadership and so in a sense he has preempted that by

Stepping down so it could change the dynamic at the trial in terms of the organization he has certainly um remade it in His image in the last few decades and there’s a lot of soul searching going on right now new um alternative groups have sprung up they’ve lost a lot

Of members and I expect that there’s going to be a power struggle in the coming weeks to see who really takes the helm there has been a temporary director interim director to step in to take his place but I think that there’s given the history of the organization there’s um

Probably some factions that are vying right now for control of the future of the organization very interesting could you just walk us through the case against Wayne laier who as you say is a hugely influential uh policy figure in terms of guns a as a legal professional what do you make of the

Case well I think the case is solid um in the United States with for tax exempt or organizations or Nos and that’s what the NRA claims to be there are restrictions on how much the leaders can use the contributions that the members make or the money basically to enrich

Themselves it’s not like a regular Corporation and so Wayne leir has and other leaders have um a history of lavish spending on trips and clothes and um parties and other types of things like that that um are very questionable and would be questionable with a for-profit corporation but what happens

Is the government can actually step in when it’s an NGO or a nonprofit and um and ask a court to do something to either to they originally asked them to dissolve the corporation The Entity they doesn’t look like that’s going to happen but they can ask them to remove the

Leaders to find the leaders and so forth um this is often being done by the um the state attorney general in the state where it’s Incorporated uh sometimes the federal government the tax revenue service will get involved in a matter like this too but they haven’t right now

I would like to look a little bit more Broad L now the us as we know has a complex relationship with guns that’s something that’s often difficult for people elsewhere like here in Europe to fully grasp could you just explain the influence of the NRA and its impact on US policy and

Politics so the gun problem is part of American culture it always has been um the country was sort of founded through conquest and uh of native tribes and lands and so forth and guns were a huge part of that so guns have always been part of the culture and unlike a lot of

Countries we have a big political gap between rural and urban voters but in terms of the NRA um starting in the 70s they became much more politically active they teamed up with a very aggressive marketing company called acran McQueen and um and sort of re shaped American

Politics and so they had the ability to if a politician voted for something they didn’t like they could really impose a political cost and a lot of times a person would lose a reelection bid uh the next time and so they were widely feared in Washington DC they had an

Amazing ability in their Heyday let’s say in the 1990s to um to mobilize millions of their members to uh call their congressmen and repres senators and representatives and so forth um to ask them to vote against or for a bill according to what the NRA wanted the NRA

Has had kind of an open door at the White House for a lot of the Republican presidents and so forth so they’ve really had a lot of influence and at this point the parties it used to be bipartisan but in recent in the last seven or eight years the Republican

Party is heavily affiliated ated with the and dependent on the NRA um and the Democrats are not and so it’s become a very much a partisan issue drew it seems that whenever there’s a mass shooting in the US we hear very quickly calls for thoughts and prayers and and very little

In the way of substantive change given this you know entrenched gun culture that you’ve just described can it be any different ever well I don’t think that um there’s one easy solution to the problem but there are lots of um measures that we can take that we have taken that have

Made some difference um and other things that we could do for example requiring background checks for uh private gun sales extreme risk protection orders uh things like that that can really make a difference we have some big gun rights cases pending before our Supreme Court right now

And I expect that this term we’re going to get some clarification there was a decision in 2022 that really created a lot of confusion in our legal system about um the meaning of the Second Amendment our constitutional rights and so forth and we’re going to get some clarification this term and then that

Will um give a kind of a road map to States about what types of regulations they can enact there’s a lot of different ways to approach approach it you can approach who’s allowed to sell the guns or buy the guns where guns are allowed to be carried and and used and

So forth and so or what types of people are disqualified from owning guns permanently and um and so we’re going to get some clarification from the Supreme Court about that and in and in the wake of that I expect a flurry of new legislation thank you so much for

Sharing your expertise with us and explaining everything so clearly that’s Professor Drew St son from the South Texas College of Law thank you so much thank you for having me

The head of the US National Rifle Association has resigned just days before the start of a corruption trial.

Wayne LaPierre blamed health worries for his decision to stand down after more than three decades. The NRA and LaPierre face trial in New York next week on corruption charges. La Pierre is accused of of taking millions of dollars from the gun rights organization for perks including safari trips and private jet flights.

Chapters:
0:00 Background on NRA scandal
0:32 Dru Stevenson, South Texas College of Law

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33 comments

  2. The reason it's important to learn Latin in high school is so you don't have to look up the meaning of a word in a Dictionary, everytime you hear a word you don't understand. Since English is derived from Latin,( English is a Latin language as is Spanish) the roots of the English language  are Latin, so when our schools in America taught Latin people learned the meaning of the Latin roots in school. (Our public schools in America  up until 1972, use to teach English from kindergarten thru the 6th grade. Then from the 7th grade to the 12th grade they taught Latin). They didn't have to look up the meaning of words they didn't understand so much, because they would have learned the meaning of the  Latin roots in high school already. Knowing Latin makes life easier.  It must have been nice to live in America before 1972, life was so much easier. Carefree. They made life more complicated than it is. We don't have to live like this.

  5. 3:59 US was founded through conquest…got it. I can see how unique this is, especially since no group in Europe, Asia or Africa or the Middle East ever displaced another group of people, or gained control of territory using weapons. It was truly an American invention. Never happened before in history. I’m so enlightened.

  7. The organization is organized crime. Good riddance. Besides what that man pushed was anything but a well regulated militia.

  9. Somehow we have so much going on on American media Teton trump crimes, elections, Epstein reports etc that we didn’t get this one reported on as much despite the significant aspects of it

  10. US conservatives scream and cry about corruption in the US while conservative politicians continue to get arrested for corruption lmao

  11. As a disgusted NRA Life member, I say hooray, Good Riddance to this predatorial, parasitic Chief, Criminal Grifter in Thief, Wayne LaPierre and his Company of Criminal Cohorts!

    This is awesome news!

     It is an opportunity to get things right at the NRA after Wayne LaPierre, and his cohorts, Criminal Theft, which  did indeed weaken, harm and destroyed the NRA's fidelity, credibility, effectiveness, support and mission focus.

    Regardless of the political
    "Whitewashing" with only a Civil Trial, the massive Grifting-Theft, which has repeatedly occurred is indeed a Malum In Se Crime,and, as such,Wayne LaPierre and his cohorts should all be criminally prosecuted for such Malum In Se crimes!

     As well as the fact of undermining National Security and interference in the American presidential election of 2016. As under Wayne LaPierre' corrupted leadership, he allowed, facilitated a now convicted Russian spy( Maria Butina) to conduct a Russian spy operation to infiltrate and spread influence to key influential Republican party power factors  with the 2016 US Presidental Election Republican nomination.

    All of such should be thoroughly investigated and acted upon with no more whitewashing it away!

    Let us also not forget that under Wayne LaPierre's corrupted, ineffective contradictory leadership, the NRA compromised on supporting the 2nd Amendment, by giving support to unconstitutional, Communistic Red Flag laws, which besides violate not only 2nd Amendment,  also violate the 4th, 5th,6th Amendment protections against Private Property Rights and Due Process.

    Now is the time to clean up the NRA,EVP Wayne LaPierre and his corrupted cohorts all need to be gone, most if not all on the NRA's corrupted, compromised, useless Board of Directors need to be dismissed with prejudice from the NRA forever.

     Necessary critical safeguards; changes need to be implemented within the NRA to root out and ensure that a culture of deep corruption will not ever again repeat, reoccur within the NRA.

    The confidence, fidelity, support that the NRA, has lost will be hard to gain back. However it can happen if the right actions and safeguards are properly implemented!

    Thankfully there are also multiple Non- Compromising effective 2nd Amendment Watchdog advocating groups such as the GOA,FPC,SAF and NAGR, etc. Which are in existence working hard, efficiently and effectively, collectively to restore the 2nd Amendment as a Fundamental Individual Right to its proper place.

  17. The NRA was not a 2nd Amendment or even a Constitutional protectorate group, they were under US TAX LAWS A NON PROFIT MEMBERSHIP ON GUNS AND PROMOTER OF BOTH RIFLES FOR PUBLIC RANGES, HUNTERS AND HOBBYIST.
    ITS SUPPORT FOR "PITTMAN ROBERTSON ACT THAT ITS MEMBERS LOBBIED HARD FOR AND WON IS STILL IN EFFECT TODAY.
    IT IS A MINUTE TAX ON ANY GUNS AND AMMO SOLD IN US WITH ITS REVENUE SPECIFICLY FOR PUBLIC RANGES CLASSES AT ALL EDUCATIONAL LEVELS, AND PROTECTION OF WILDLIFE.
    THE NRA PARTN R SHIP WITH US MILITARY ALLOWED FOR INDIVIDUALS TO ACQUIRE USED MILITARY RIFLES FOR FREE IF PART OF ANY ORGANIZED GUN GROUP, CALLED "CIVILIAN MARKSMANSHIP PROGRAM.
    IF NRA HAD GONE DIRECTLY INTO SUPPORTING GOV PERSONALITIES OR POLICIES IT WOULD OF AUTOMATICLY LOST ITS TAX STATUS.

  22. He belongs in prison on multiple charges, including of aiding and abetting the insurrection on January 6th. He knows his connections to Moscow will not find favor with the America public. Like many others, he is part of a plan to overthrow the legitimate government of the USA. Lock him up before he flees the country!

  29. Assault rifles need to be made illegal, every gun needs to be registered and carry insurance just like your car, if you have no insurance and your gun is involved in a crime, you go to jail

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