The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) board of directors has re-elected Wayne LaPierre as CEO, despite the organization facing financial woes over its past spending.
LaPierre had faced a challenge from Lt. Col. Allen West, but the organization said West had ultimately only received one vote.
LaPierre’s re-election comes on the heels of two mass shootings in New York and Texas, spurring gun control activists to blame the NRA for the tragedies. The NRA and La LaPierre say instead that mental health and school security should be the focus of discussion, not guns.
Fox News reports:
“Like all Americans, we grieve for the people of Uvalde and Texas,” LaPierre said in a statement. “And as we do, we join in the call to support brave law enforcement like Deputy Thoman, improve mental health services, and make our schools more safe and secure. Our children are our most treasured and precious resource — making schools safe is a national emergency.”
“I am honored to continue my work for the NRA, and to join our members in their campaign to promote responsible gun ownership and defend Second Amendment freedom for all law-abiding Americans,” he said.
In recent years the NRA has been hit with a number of scandals and financial woes, including a lawsuit from New York Attorney general Letitia James who sought to disband the organization.
In 2021, the NRA filed for bankruptcy which a judge later dismissed.
“There are absolutely certain things we can and must do,” he said in his speech at the NRA Convention last week. “Where we part ways with [President Biden] and many in his party, is on the policy question… what we can and should do to prevent the hate-filled, vile monsters that walk among us from committing their evil.”
“Restricting a fundamental, human right of law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is not the answer,” he said. “It never has been.”
