Tag: Wayne LaPierre

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At Large Opinion

A Bang-up Job

Wayne LaPierre (Photo: Gage Skidmore | Creative Commons | Wikimedia Commons)

Last Friday, a civil court jury in New York City found Wayne LaPierre, the now-former head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), liable for mishandling $5.4 million of the organization’s money.

Apparently unable to squeak by on his meager $2.2 million annual salary, LaPierre rolled up charges of more than $270,000 for clothes from a Zegna boutique in Beverly Hills, billed tens of thousands of dollars for private charter flights for himself and relatives, and took numerous extravagant NRA-paid vacations. In addition, LaPierre often billed the NRA for a stylist who charged $10,000 a session for hair and makeup for his wife, Susan LaPierre. Fancy!

The trial, prosecuted by New York Attorney General Letitia James, uncovered other fiduciary misdeeds, including that of LaPierre’s personal assistant, Millie Hallow, who he retained even after she was caught funneling $40,000 in NRA money to pay for her son’s wedding.

In leading the “nonprofit” organization that is arguably responsible for more civilian gun deaths than any in American history, Wayne LaPierre got rich and lived large. He famously said, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” It now appears that you can also stop a bad guy with a gun with a lawsuit. Or at least, make him resign.

The truth is the NRA has been in something of a decline. Membership has dropped by nearly a third — from 6 million members to around 4 million members — in little more than five years. And an internal audit cited by The New York Times found that the organization’s revenue is down 44 percent over the past eight years.

Despite these numbers, the NRA still has significant investments that pay consistent dividends year after year. These include, among many others, senators Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and Tennessee’s own Marsha Blackburn, who the NRA has funded to the tune of more than $1.3 million. (No word on whether Marsha was ever in line for one of those sweet $10,000 hairstylin’s.)

These political stalwarts assist their blood-stained benefactor by opposing such scary bills as the Protect America’s Schools Act and the Keep Americans Safe Act — which proposed to limit the size of gun magazines. It’s the position of Marsha, Mitch, and their NRA buddies that we can’t be forcing mass shooters to reload too often because it infringes their Second Amendment rights.

Still, as I mentioned above, there is some hope that we may be witnessing the end of an era. According to the Open Secrets organization, the NRA recently reported its largest-ever year-to-year decline in federal lobbying spending — from $4.9 million in 2021 to $2.6 million in 2022. There was also a decline in NRA spending in federal elections from $54.5 million in 2016 to $29.1 million in 2020.

Even given those encouraging trends, however, there’s no denying that LaPierre and the NRA managed to thoroughly transform the American political landscape over the past 25 years. Few Republicans have the courage to support gun reform — because they fear the NRA. And thanks to the NRA, the Second Amendment has been twisted to mean that any kind of permit or gun training or limitation as to where guns can be carried is a violation of holy writ. “Democrats will take your guns” is an ever-recurring election year mantra for the GOP. More than half of the 50 states have essentially no gun regulations for permitting or carrying. Thoughts and prayers are allowed — for now — but don’t get too carried away with those thoughts.

There is a 2013 video obtained by The New Yorker of LaPierre shooting an elephant in Africa. It’s on YouTube, but I do not recommend that you watch it, unless you consider such hunting a “sport.” LaPierre is guided to an ambush position where he can shoot the great animal from close range. It falls to the ground, lying still, groaning in agony. LaPierre takes three more shots into the moaning beast from 20 feet away but is unable to hit the kill spot pointed out by the guide, who is finally forced to make the kill.

There is a metaphor there for Republicans. There is a lesson there for all of us. Who can name the great beast?

Categories
Editorial Opinion

How to Handle an “Active Shooter”

No, the title does not refer to any of the legions of gun owners among us who regularly undertake practice sessions with their pieces — be it at the range or outdoors, with .22 caliber peashooters or Uzis.

“Active shooters” is a law-enforcement term for the kinds of armed mass murderers who have plagued our society from Columbine to Kalamazoo and who seem to be multiplying in sync with the well-documented “anger” at large in the U.S. of A. these days.

And, Archie Bunker or Donald Trump or Wayne LaPierre notwithstanding, the term definitely does not apply to the kind of amateur would-be gunslinger hero who imagines that he could successfully intervene in a mano-a-mano shoot-out against the real deal: the marauders who invade our private and (increasingly) public spaces and permanently deprive those who are dear to us of the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

In a succinct and compelling address to a luncheon meeting of the Memphis Rotary Club on Tuesday, Robert Carlson, who heads the Active Shooter Program of the Memphis Police Department and coordinates local training with the FBI, scrupulously avoided commenting on the politics of gun control or its converse, open carry. In outlining the steps that ordinary citizens are advised to follow in the case of armed and murderous intruders, he said that armed citizens have seldom demonstrated any usefulness in such situations. He added that the citizen vigilantes who happen to be packing when an active shooter arrives on the scene are far more likely to get in the way of law-enforcement efforts to deal with the threat than to help the situation.  

In fact, “Don’t go trying to hurt the bad guy” is one of the precepts of the MPD’s “Avoid, Deny, Defend” model for citizens. The recommended steps? “Avoid” means to get the hell out, as far away from the action as possible, through a window or by whatever means puts the most distance between you and the armed threat. “Deny” involves remedies such as locking or barricading doors. And, finally, “Defend” means to try to disarm or disable the intruder and “put the pain train” on him when avoidance or escape are impossible. The one rule in such circumstances is to guarantee, by any means necessary, that “you will go home.” Then, and only then, is when a firearm on your person becomes a viable key to survival.

Meanwhile, as citizens are presumably following these rules, law enforcement units will be rushing to the scene, with two main rules of their own in mind: 1) Stop the killing; and 2) Stop the dying — the latter involving efforts to aid the injured and wounded.

“Active Shooter” incidents are regarded as “the Super Bowl of law enforcement,” the ultimate challenge for specialized training, Carlson said. And surely he’s right. The bottom line? Whenever possible, we should leave law enforcement to the pros.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

I’m Not Sexist, But …

There was a huge sea-change in attitudes this week. Thousands of people made the decision to switch from not being racists to not being sexists. As in, “I’m not a sexist, but I can’t stand Hillary Clinton.” This is good news for President Obama, as the thousands of not racists who hated him found a new target.

This change was spurred by Clinton’s video announcement on Sunday that she would be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. Her announcement, called “Getting Started,” was pandering and insipid — touching all the elements of her base: families, retirees, gays, lesbians, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, working men, young mothers, small business owners, students, and dog owners. Cat owners, apparently, are being conceded to Rand Paul.

Clinton promised that it was time for Americans to “get ahead and stay ahead,” and accented the point with a small, awkward fist pump. That was enough to cue the Hillary Derangement Syndrome from the right-wing media and the GOP.

In Nashville, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said that a Clinton presidency would bring a wave of “darkness and despair,” adding that “eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough.” Yes, it’s high time we got back to white male presidents, as Jesus intended. Way to sew up the women’s vote, Wayne.

Seconding that motion, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly declared that it would be “open season on Christians and white men,” courageously leaping to the defense of America’s most oppressed people.

Lord help us. We have 18 more months of this to look forward to. And after what Obama’s done to us, we’re about to run out of guns.

Every week, a new Republican candidate climbs into the clown car, upping the ante and raising again the question: Can an anti-science, anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, anti-health-care reform, anti-immigration reform, pro-gun Christianist win the presidency? Apparently, no GOP candidate thinks he can win the nomination without embracing Tea Party tenets.

I’m no scientist (to quote most declared Republican candidates thus far), but I can do math. In the 2012 election, Barack Obama won 332 electoral votes; Mitt Romney won 206. The tides of age, gender, and diversity are sweeping old white men out to sea and the Republicans are running out of brooms.

Hillary Clinton isn’t particularly likeable, at least not to a lot of people, including many Democrats. That’s why Obama was able to knock her off so quickly in the 2008 primaries: He was a fresh, likeable, approachable candidate.

Hillary is Hillary. But her views are much more in line with the majority of Americans than those of the Tea Party.

The Republicans haven’t got anybody in the stable who’s remotely close to being able to appeal to a sentient, multi-ethnic America. Yes, the Republicans will continue to win state elections in areas where they’ve gerrymandered themselves into near-permanancy, but their presidential prospects are doomed until a candidate emerges with the courage to call bullshit on all this pandering to know-nothings.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

NRA Foreplay in Tennessee

The NRA convention is coming to Nashville this weekend, so the Tennessee Legislature is trying to pass as many gun-friendly laws as possible before their overlords get here. That’s not hyperbole. Some members have actually said in public that this is a concern. The NRA must be appeased, and quickly, lest Wayne “Wackjob” LaPierre call them out from the podium as sissies. Was there ever a clearer demonstration of who these folks are actually working for?

One of this bunch’s signature pieces of legislation is the “guns in parks” bill, which would override the rights of Tennessee’s cities and counties to make the rules for allowing guns in their parks. The proposed bill essentially allows guns in all local parks, no matter what the local preference might be.

This is being done in response to overwhelming public demand, right?

Of course, it’s not. There has been no outcry from the citizenry to allow guns in our parks. Quite the opposite. Local government and business leaders around the state have denounced the law. It’s just another dog-whistle bill to appease the NRA and the state’s gun fetishists, public opinion be damned.

But they have a problem: The Senate upped the crazy a notch by adding an amendment that would allow armed handgun-carry permit holders onto the capitol grounds and into the building itself. Using their own “logic,” you could rightly ask, “What’s wrong with that?” After all, half the bozos in the legislature proudly carry guns, so you’d have plenty of responsible “good guys with guns” to take care of any responsible handgun carrier on capitol grounds who might become, er, irresponsible. Plus, there are plenty of police and security guards around. But the House doesn’t like this idea.

Let’s review, shall we? A) Our noble representatives are in favor of allowing people carrying guns to walk around freely in our parks and on our playgrounds (and, for that matter, pretty much anywhere they want), despite what the local citizenry might prefer; and B) they are not in favor of allowing people carrying guns to walk around where they are — a heavily secured and protected government facility. Nope, no hypocrisy there.

The lone hope for sanity lies in the hands of Governor Bill Haslam, who has, thankfully, expressed some reservations about all of this. He expressed regret that the legislature had not bothered to take testimony from local government leaders. (Representative Chuck “Chuck” Burpuss [R-Muletug] responded, “Testimony? We don’t need no steenkin’ testimony.”) Well, not exactly. But close.

Haslam, not surprisingly, was not invited to speak to the NRA gathering. Given his recent efforts to push through Insure Tennessee, there appears to be a spark of humanity and common sense in our governor. Here’s hoping he summons the courage to take on the anti-business, pro-bullet idealogues of his own party and vetoes this bill. In so doing, he’d show the legislature who the real sissies are.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

CREDIT: Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com

Rather than make up some lame best/worst list from the past year, I’d rather list a few things I would like to see happen in the future. They vary in subject and are in no particular order, but all are equally important. At least to me. I’m not talking about things in general, like “a return to civility,” but specific things that I lie awake and think about in my quietest hours. It’s because I’m a problem solver, and I’m waiting on some progressive think tank to call me up and actually pay me to dream up gems like these. Some may call them pipe dreams, but I’d prefer to think of it as “creative visualization,” which, I read, causes your wildest fantasies to come true, provided that they are first approved by CIA guidelines on astral projection. So, if I shut my eyes and concentrate, the Akashic record of all things past and future will grant my desires, which include:

• In the near future, the discredited and co-opted Tea Party will break away from the Republicans and form a third political party called the Neo-Dixiecrats, paying homage to their philosophical forefathers. This will encompass the race baiters, the climate deniers, the science refuseniks, the rape defenders, the Obama haters, the wackos, morons, and yahoos, leaving the business of governing up to those who actually have the country’s best interests at heart.

• After the first of the year, NRA president Wayne “Call Me Crazy” LaPierre will convene another news conference in which he will reveal that because of pressure from his members, he now agrees that military assault weapons have no purpose on city streets other than murder, and his conscience leads him to oppose the sale of high-capacity magazines and drums to the general public. LaPierre will say, “The police are out-gunned, and just like the ‘Tommy gun’ was banned in the 1920s, I see no reason not to outlaw assault-style weapons now.” LaPierre will further announce an NRA fund to assist victims of gun violence and educate school children about the dangers of firearms. In a candid aside, LaPierre will tell assembled reporters, “Look, I always knew that the Founding Fathers were only talking about muskets, but these guys were paying me a million dollars a year. The high-tech weapons of today don’t really have anything to do with the Second Amendment.”

• Leading up to the mid-term elections, the benefits of legalizing marijuana will spread from west to east, just like the original pot craze in the Sixties. But this will be about personal freedom and the potential revenues resulting from government regulation and taxation of marijuana sales. Pot laws will fall in state after state like dominoes, which, by coincidence, will see pizza sales rise. When the possession and sale of small amounts of pot are legalized, the prison doors will open wide and release tens of thousands of nonviolent marijuana offenders back into their communities; municipalities will discontinue using SWAT teams to kick in the doors of marijuana growers; because the profit has been taken out of illegal pot trafficking, the crime rate drops precipitately; the bloody conflict in Mexico ends because marijuana was the cash crop and the demand for harder drugs has now diminished. The U.S. government smacks themselves on the head and says, “What were we thinking?” while Congress votes to end the fool’s errand, the failed “War on Drugs.”

• Rupert Murdoch decides that the Republican Party has gone too far and transforms the Fox News Network into an entertainment channel that only shows Elvis movies and old reruns of All in the Family. Murdoch announces that a major portion of Fox’s profits will go to Planned Parenthood and the establishment of a series of nationwide adoption agencies for unwed mothers. Shortly thereafter, Rush Limbaugh’s sponsors decide that enough is enough, and end one of the longest and most obnoxious chapters in radio history. After his arrest for inciting a riot, Rush is declared a clear and present danger to the common order and is spotted wandering the streets with Bill O’Reilly, attempting to kick the homeless.

• President Obama brings the war in Afghanistan to an early end, pledges that the U.S. will never again initiate a war by invading a sovereign state without provocation, and announces a commission to look into the Bush administration’s lies leading up to the bombing of Baghdad.

• The Bass Pro Shop opens in the Pyramid to praise and unprecedented excitement. The featured attractions are unique to Memphis and the world and become a must-see in travel articles and tourist guides. The underwater visual experience is so enthralling that even the jaded people of Memphis return to the area, revitalizing the Pinch district while creating scores of jobs. Bass Pro decides against plastering their name all over the pyramid or putting a giant fishing lure on the exterior.

• The owners of the six major record companies decide that, hereafter, rap will be considered an art form, just not music. Some guy screaming into a microphone while a DJ plays sounds from days of yore is not a musical presentation; it is a spoken-word recitation, accompanied by pilfered snippets of already existing songs. I don’t care how much they pay in royalties, “sampling” is merely stealing another artist’s creation. Imagine Andy Warhol “sampling” Vincent Van Gogh.

• It is discovered that Donald Trump was not born in Queens, as records indicate, but in his mother’s native Scotland. His father falsified the birth notification with assistance from paid lackeys in the press, hoping the boy would be president someday. The Donald is declared an illegal alien and is forced to “self-deport,” where he begins a campaign for Scottish independence from an “illegitimate monarchy.”

• In 2016, we will elect our first woman president: Elizabeth Warren. And finally …

• Justin Timberlake will record my most soulful composition, “A Woman’s Touch,” available for listening on YouTube by Randy and the Radiants, and it becomes his biggest hit to date. I move into a zero-lot line on the river and pay off my credit card bills. Hey, it could happen. And a guy can dream, can’t he? All I need is a little help from my friends and some collective creative visualizations. That just might bring me the same happy new year that I wish for all of you.