The NRA hit yet another roadblock this week when it was forced to cancel its Annual Meeting.
The announcement came just a week before tens of thousands of NRA members were set to descend on Houston, Texas, to attend the 150th-anniversary meeting. It came after concerns started to mount over the surge of Covid cases in the state. And it’s bad news for the group’s finances.
The Annual Meeting is the biggest fundraising event of the year for the NRA. It had to cancel last year’s event. Now this year’s is down the drain, too, after it had already booked the biggest convention center in Houston and planned the whole event.
So, the group is not only missing out on the membership and merchandise sales it would have had, but it will likely take a substantial hit for the last-minute cancelations.
That’s the kind of financial hit it can’t really afford either. Leaked financial documents show the NRA’s income cratered in 2020 while its legal expenses skyrocketed. After breaking ties with outside marketing firm Ackerman McQueen in 2019, the group has essentially moved the $40 million it was spending on them into the accounts of Brewer Attorneys.
The NRA has spent over $25 million in legal fees each year since 2018. It hit that $40 million mark in 2020. And It has already spent over $22 million this year, mostly on the failed bankruptcy gambit Brewer masterminded.
Only massive spending cuts in other areas including the gun-safety training division put the group back in the black in 2020. More may be coming to keep it there in 2021.
The cost is not the only problem with the cancelation. The way it happened is a bad sign too. It wasn’t until after big gun companies started dropping out of the event that the NRA finally canceled.
Late last week, the Daily Beast reported that most major gun makers were baking out of the event over Covid. Benelli confirmed that to me. The Beast report went a step further and said many companies had been privately pressuring the NRA to cancel the whole thing.
Sources inside the NRA and the industry told me this week that was true. And that it had been going on for several weeks. And many people in the industry eventually decided to walk.
That’s a bad sign for the group’s influence. The ongoing legal fight over accusations that NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and other executives diverted members’ money to lavish personal expenses may have lowered the bar for when gun companies are willing to go against the group’s wishes. There has been some speculation that the backouts were more about opposition to LaPierre than concerns over Covid.
I don’t think that’s true. If it were, the companies wouldn’t have signed up to sponsor in the first place. Instead, the controversy and continued legal action against the group’s leadership made it easier for these companies to back out when they became concerned about the rise in Covid cases. Whether the NRA wanted them to or not.
3 Responses
It may be moot at this point, but I suspect there’s more to members’ and sponsors’ view of the NRA and its intransigence regarding problems surrounding the executive vice president than you’re giving credit. Yes, you’ve spoken with some of the companies, so there’s no doubt you have a better handle on it than I do. However, I doubt even your inside sources would go public about an inside fight to eliminate the elephant in the room. There are some things that just can’t happen – like being a major firearms manufacturer and boycotting the NRA exhibit floor as a statement against NRA leadership even, or perhaps especially, if that’s what they would have much preferred to do. There’s no doubt that justified fears about COVID make a convenient excuse to cancel, especially in a city like Houston with the influx of illegal aliens coming across the still-open border. I suspect it’s more that the rise in cases made it easier for companies to back out when the controversy and continued legal action was the primary reason they were looking for a way to do that.
I’d also suggest that an expected attendance that would be half or less of what would otherwise be expected to attend, especially for the 150th Anniversary, was a factor. For my part and for many of the members I know, the NRA’s unwillingness to deal with the headquarters’ internal problems is a huge factor. Yes, the COVID restrictions were also, which is why I would have driven rather than flown. It was still the fact NRA refuses to remove the EVP and clean house that kept us from making the journey. (It has also caused many members to not renew their memberships and stopped others from joining.) Now we can also take some comfort in knowing we aren’t missing anything. I’m just glad we didn’t make any hotel reservations and feel bad for those who did. I also feel bad for the hotels, restaurants, and other businesses in Houston that have already suffered huge losses over the last year, just not bad enough to have attended.
Yes, I think that’s a fair view of things. I think the accusations against Wayne and others has had a significant effect on the NRA’s standing among regular members and the industry. But I don’t have anyone willing to say that was the main motivation for backing out of the meeting. So, that’s just speculation on my part.
And I seriously doubt anyone will be willing to admit that publicly. I certainly wouldn’t if I were CEO or PIO of any of those major pillars of this industry, at least not until enough NRA board members get fed up or replaced to end the current EVP’s reign.