Wayne LaPierre, the man who elevated the National Rifle Association in the United States, resigns before his corruption trial

To his supporters, Wayne LaPierre was an ardent defender of freedom. For his detractors, he embodied the worst excesses of the firearms industry's influence on American politics. This Friday, the leader of the National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the lobbies most powerful in this country, has announced his resignation on the eve of a civil court hearing for alleged corruption and citing health reasons.

The resignation of LaPierre, 74, has been accepted by the association's board of directors and will take effect on the 31st of this month, as announced by the group defending the citizen use of firearms. “I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend the freedom of the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms). “My passion for our cause burns brighter than ever,” the outgoing CEO, who will be replaced by current COO Andrew Arulanandam, said in a statement.

The NRA corruption hearing will begin next Monday in New York as scheduled. There, and after a three-year investigation concluded in 2020, prosecutor Laetitia James accuses the resigned leader of appropriating millions of dollars from the pressure group's accounts for his personal use, including flights on private planes, haute couture suits and other luxury products.

“The influence of the NRA has been so powerful that no one monitored it for decades, while top executives diverted millions of dollars into their own pockets,” James claimed in filing charges. “The NRA is rife with fraud and abuse, which is why we are seeking to disband it, because no organization is above the law.”

LaPierre had reached the top of the organization in 1991, which he had turned into a pressure tool in favor of laws favorable to the use of firearms, with the capacity to mobilize millions of people in defense of the freedom to carry. weapons, despite the incessant increase in shootings and victims in the last three decades. In 2023 alone, 656 incidents were recorded – almost two a day – in which at least four people were injured, according to the count of the NGO Gun Violence Archive. Almost 19,000 people have lost their lives in them.

Under his leadership, the group's endorsement became desired by candidates for political office, especially in the Republican Party. Having an “A” or “excellent” rating from the organization could make the difference in whether a candidate was chosen or failed. But despite his close relationship with the political world, his public narrative insisted on a populist message, which the elites in power sought to disarm and endanger ordinary citizens. “They don't like that the people who clean their floors, clean their clothes and serve them food have the same protection as their armed bodyguards,” claimed one of his ads in the 2016 election campaign.

Its influence skyrocketed from the beginning of the 21st century. The attacks of September 11, 2001 unleashed the sale of weapons in the United States, especially assault weapons that had been banned during the Bill Clinton era and whose veto is unthinkable in the United States today. A trend that increased during Barack Obama's mandate (2009-2017): by 2014, each gun owner owned an average of eight copies. In the country there were more rifles and revolvers than people: 400 million of the former and 330 million of the latter. “The only thing that stops an armed bad guy is an armed good guy,” the association proclaimed, although the data contradicted it: an FBI study found that of 160 incidents with firearms between 2000 and 2013, only one, in 2008, “good armed citizen” managed to stop a shooting.

The organization's advertising investment in 2016 represented an important boost for the arrival to the White House of Republican Donald Trump, who as a candidate multiplied his efforts to present himself as an enthusiastic defender of the right to bear arms.

Shootings of the caliber of the one carried out at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, where twenty children and six adults died, or at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died and Another 17 were injured in February 2018, dealing a serious blow to the lobby's reputation.

By the end of 2018, states had passed three times as many gun control measures as in 2017. In that year's midterm elections, gun control groups had spent more money on advertising than the NRA, and forced the defeat of at least eight electoral candidates whom the association supported with its desired A rating. In 2022, Republicans and Democrats reached an agreement to advance a bill that imposed certain limitations on the access and possession of weapons.

Since its peak, when it had nearly six million members in 2017, the group has continued to lose members and today has 4.2 million members on its lists. His income has fallen 44% since 2016, while his legal expenses have skyrocketed.

His loss of prestige among part of American society developed in parallel with internal fights over accusations of corruption and fraudulent management, which attracted enough attention to James to open an investigation into the association. Among other things, leaked tax documents showed that LaPierre billed the NRA for $275,000 spent at a luxury boutique in Beverly Hills, and nearly $250,000 on personal flights to the Bahamas and Italy.

“The end of Wayne LaPierre's era at the head of the NRA is an important victory in our case,” the prosecutor commented on social networks after learning of the defendant's resignation. “LaPierre's resignation vindicates our accusations against him, but it will not protect him from being held accountable. We look forward to the time to present our case in court.”

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