The National Rifle Association owns expensive statues, a luxury SUV, and has a private jet service on standby, according to public court filings released Monday. Among the NRA's assets are statues and paintings of its former president Charlton Heston worth nearly six figures, a Range Rover for the group's treasurer, and a prepayment to a private jet company. The group also listed liabilities including millions in disputed tax payments to the IRS, millions owed to fundraising companies, and hundreds of thousands owed to lawyers. Overall, the group has roughly $245 million in assets while owing about $112 million in liabilities.
... details include a 2018 Range Rover Sport among the group's 71-vehicle fleet, an $80,000 statue of former NRA president Charlton Heston as well as a $15,000 painting of him, and a $20,000 prepayment to Corporate America Aviation, which offers "discrete private transportation services" via private jet. The NRA filing said the group has over 1,000 creditors with claims ranging from a few dollars to a few million.
The largest claim against the NRA, outside of its pension fund, comes from the Internal Revenue Service, which is seeking $3.4 million from the group over a tax dispute dating back to 2014. But the NRA also owes millions to fundraising and merchandising companies including $1.4 million for Membership Marketing Partners, half a million for Communications Corp of America, and half a million for Global New Beginnings, Inc, among many others. The NRA also reported a $180,000 claim from a company called Wayne LaPierre Expense Reports Reserve, which operates out of the group's Virginia headquarters. It is not clear what the claim is for. The NRA did not respond to a request for details on it. The group also reported being involved in more than a dozen lawsuits, including ones against former executives such as Chris Cox and former contractors such as Ackerman McQueen. The many lawsuits help explain why the group reports owing millions of dollars to various law firms, like the nearly $600,000 owed to Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, over $250,000 owed to Briglia Hundley, and nearly $375,000 owed to Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Those claims are on top of the more than $12 million the NRA reported paying its top outside counsel Bill Brewer in the 90 days before filing.
To continue:
The NRA spends very little of their revenue on lobbying.
Compare it to other industries and they are no where near the top.
Then look at what they spend on legal cases and how many they take.
The above items should be 70-90% of their revenue if they wanted to make a difference.
The only power they have is membership - but they exploit that.
Their ratings, articles, etc do little to help or hurt a politician.
Read the first post I made about the subject in the thread we got kicked off of. I’ll stand by those statements.
Ever pay attention to the NRA annual convention and who’s there? 5 million people voting as a block carries clout in itself.
Nobody’s arguing that the NRA hasn’t lost its way lately, but were it not for the NRA you damn sure wouldn’t enjoy the gun rights you enjoy today.
To say the NRA has no political clout is asinine.