My intent is not to convey that he has not done any good in his tenure … .
Can you name three significantly positive accomplishments Pierre has achieved, as head of the NRA, in the past three decades?
Positive for whom?
For responsible Americans who opt to keep and bear arms.
I will say the NRA ILA and org itself invested heavily in getting Trump elected in 2016, and despite the apparent steal, I think had they engaged again at the same level in 2020, it could have made the difference in getting Trump re-elected. Instead, they laid off a lot of staff across NRA and NRA-ILA in early 2020 amidst the pandemic.
Granted, the NRA's 2016 election engagement wasn't without controversy and allegations that seem much more credible than the Steele dossier that started that narrative: "NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals"
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-revealsAnd also apparent corruption/cronyism in political spends:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/13/mystery-firm-nra-consultant-219004/In 2016, the NRA’s federal election payments to Starboard ballooned to $40 million, a massive portion of the gun rights group’s total independent spending for the year, which came to almost $53 million. That cycle, when Johnson was defending his Wisconsin Senate seat for the first time, his campaign paid OnMessage almost $4 million. The payments stopped in August. Just over two months later, the NRA aided in the reelection effort, and tapped Starboard for nearly $200,000 in advertising.
The sum the NRA paid to Starboard in 2016 was split between the group’s Political Victory Fund and its Institute for Legislative Action. The transactions paid by the ILA accounted for roughly $23.4 million. Unlike the Victory Fund, a freestanding organization affiliated with the gun group, the ILA is a component of the NRA’s nonprofit corporation, which means its financial records are subject to oversight by the Internal Revenue Service. In the NRA’s tax filings, it is required to disclose its top five independent contractors for any given year, and that includes contractors retained by its divisions, such as the ILA. In 2016, Starboard was not included on the list, even though, based on what it received from ILA, it would have ranked as the NRA’s second highest-earning contractor.
“If Starboard was paid by the Institute for Legislative Action for services, then Starboard was a contractor, and if Starboard was one of the NRA’s largest contractors, then it should be listed on the NRA’s 990,” Marcus Owens, the former head of the IRS division overseeing tax exempt enterprises, said.
As far as the FEC and the public know, OnMessage did no campaign work for the NRA in 2016 — the firm is nowhere mentioned in the group’s filings. More than half of the money the NRA paid Starboard that year, about $25.7 million, was spent in the service of electing Donald Trump to the presidency. After the Republican candidate defeated Hillary Clinton, however, OnMessage celebrated the work it produced for the NRA.
Actually opposing President George W Bush on the continuation of the assault weapons ban was also a success (and a major reversal from a decade prior) and to great benefit to American soldiers as civilian AR refinements found their way to troops at a much greater pace than they would have otherwise... But that was in 2003:
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/08/us/irking-nra-bush-supports-the-ban-on-assault-weapons.htmlThe Lawful Protection of Commerce Act under GWB preventing nuisance lawsuits to firearm industry was also pretty significant:
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20051026/president-bush-signs-protection-of-brStand your ground and concealed carry laws might also be successes, but were state-level work of state affiliates -- so uncertain of how big of role national org played (generally fairly small per my understanding w/ LaPierre just showing up for bill signing photo ops).
And they might have played a meaningful role in a few gun rights lawsuits (don't know to what extent offhand).
Beyond these, I'm drawing a blank on anything major in the past 30 years.
And yes, I agree the NRA's been a dumpster fire in the past few years and the senior "leadership" has primarily served themselves and deserve broad criticism and condemnation.
