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AG Ken Paxton, Beto O'Rourke, D/S/Cs, joe biden, Letitia James, Lois Lerner, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, National Shooting Sports Foundation, New York State, NRA, President Trump, second amendment, Wayne LaPierre
Normally, when a writer intends to use an acronym in an article or book, they must spell it out entirely the first time it appears. The acronym suffices thereafter. The exception is when an acronym is so very well known nothing more is necessary. Such is the case with “NRA.” It is not, however, the case with Letitia James, who for most Americans, was essentially unknown until last week. Who then is she? Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection explains:
Letitia James ran for office on a platform of ending Trump’s ‘illegitimate’ presidency. The NRA lawsuit is a lashing out at the closest thing to Trump as James could get her hands on this close to the election.
Letitia James was elected Attorney General of New York State on a platform of using the full power of her office to target “illegitimate” Donald Trump and those around him. She is the epitome of the politicized #Resistance prosecutor.
Enter the NRA. As I’ve often written, the NRA’s success is primarily due to the support of its members, more than five million—an all-time high—and more than 1000 new members a day since June, 2020. Its focus is on gun safety and education. Another significant part of its success–political power–is its focus on defending the Second Amendment rights of Americans. It is an apolitical organization—it donates to Democrats as well as Republicans—but circa 2020, few Democrats dare be seen as friendly with the NRA, particularly since their presidential standard bearer is a noted anti-liberty/gun cracktivist—when he can remember who he is and for which office he is running.
Enter Letitia James, the Lois Lerner of the 2020 presidential race. Fox News reports:
On Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit to dissolve the NRA due to alleged self-dealing, financial fraud and mismanagement that took millions from the group’s coffers for contracts that benefited its leadership, their families and associates.
‘The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,’ James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
And there, gentle readers, is the central issue: the NRA is indeed politically influential, and James is determined, as Lerner was, to prevent them from having an influence in this election. Everything else she and the rest of the D/S/C establishment have tried has failed. This is a last-gasp effort to harm Trump and suppress the Normal American vote. It may well backfire.
The National Rifle Association could spend ‘tens of millions’ in battleground states with just months until the 2020 election, despite a steep fundraising hit due to the coronavirus.
If former Vice President Joe Biden succeeds in ousting President Trump, and if Democrats take control of the Senate and maintain their grip on the House, the shift in power would threaten the rights of gun owners, the NRA’s Jason Ouimet told the Washington Free Beacon Thursday.
‘You are literally going to be dealing with the potential confiscation of firearms,’ he told the outlet. ‘You’re literally going to be told you can’t carry in certain places. You can’t own certain things for self-defense.’
How do we know this? For the first time, D/S/Cs are being entirely honest about their intentions. Joe Biden has said he would make fake Hispanic Beto O’Rourke the point man of his gun confiscation efforts. Covid-19 hysteria and D/S/C encouraged and enabled lawlessness have caused increasing numbers of Americans, many of them Democrats, to buy guns for the first time. Fearing D/S/Cs will make good on their anti-liberty/gun promises—including abolishing the police–if they take power, Americans are stockpiling guns, ammunition and accessories. They, unlike too many politicians, aren’t stupid.
‘We’ll spend tens of millions of dollars. Will it be $50 million? I don’t know,’ Ouimet told the Beacon, referring to the sum the NRA spent during the 2016 election season. ‘We got shut down from doing any of that level of fundraising… That has an impact on us just the same way it has an impact on everybody else.’
The NRA will focus on spending in battleground states to help reelect Trump, he said. It also plans to concentrate election-season efforts on swing states where voters have supported gun rights in the past – like Arizona, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
As one might hope, the NRA is not folding it’s tents, as Fox News reports:
The National Rifle Association is fighting back against a lawsuit filed Thursday by New York’s attorney general by submitting its own civil suit against the state official, accusing her of defamation and violating its rights to free speech.
The NRA’s lawsuit was filed in the federal court of New York and alleges Attorney General Letitia James ‘made the political prosecution of the NRA a central campaign theme’ when she was running for the AG’s office in 2018, and has not treated the association fairly since.
‘Despite hopes that playing by the rules would procure a just outcome, the NRA has not been treated fairly by James’s office,’ the 19-page suit states. ‘The New York Democratic Party political machine seeks to harass, defund, and dismantle the NRA because of what it believes and what it says.’
Obviously. The timing of this grandstanding ploy, announced at a press conference run like a political rally—the hallmark of the corrupt D/S/C prosecutor—is, oh what’s the word…suspicious? Yes, that’s the one.
The defamation allegations stem from James’ public descriptions of the NRA as a ‘criminal enterprise’ and ‘a terrorist organization.’
Hmm. In an honest justice system, that might seem to suggest unlawful bias on the part of James.
James boasted that she would strike foul blows against the NRA and pound the NRA into submission. She vowed that she would use the NYAG’s investigative and enforcement powers for the precise purpose of stanching political speech (‘deadly propaganda),’ the lawsuit states. ‘She has begun to deliver on her campaign promises to retaliate against the NRA for constitutionally protected speech on issues that James opposes. As NYAG, James has regrettably succumbed to ‘individual passions, and individual malevolence.’
That would seem obvious too.
President Trump also slammed James’ suit against the group, calling it ‘a very terrible thing.’
‘I think the NRA should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life. And I’ve told them that for a long time. I think they should move to Texas – Texas would be a great state or to another state of their choosing – but I would say that Texas would be a great place and an appropriate place for the NRA.’
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick have made just that invitation. However, it appears under New York Law, James has the power to deny any such move.
The lawsuit [by James], filed Thursday in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, alleges that the NRA ‘diverted millions of dollars away from its charitable mission for personal use by senior leadership.’ She further slammed the association for what she called ‘years of self-dealing and illegal conduct that violate New York’s charities laws and undermine its own mission.’
The 166-page lawsuit names four NRA executives, including CEO Wayne LaPierre, as defendants
‘Contrary to his statutory duties of care, loyalty and obedience to the mission of the charity, LaPierre has undertaken a series of actions to consolidate his position; to exploit that position for his personal benefit and that of his family; to continue, by use of a secret ‘poison pill contract,’ his employment even after removal and ensuring NRA income for life; and to intimidate, punish, and expel anyone at a senior level who raised concerns about his conduct,’ the attorney general’s lawsuit states.
James said the actions of the accused quartet ‘contributed to the loss of more than $64 million in just three years for the NRA.’
While the lawsuit accuses all four men of wrongdoing and seeks fines and remuneration, none of them have been charged with a crime.
And therein, gentle readers, is another interesting and obvious indicator this is a political persecution. There have, for years, been concerns regarding the leadership of LaPierre and others, including the unwise use of funds, perhaps even the misuse of funds. These issues have been extensively covered in the firearms press, which unlike the Lamestream Media does police its own, so I’ll not go into them here, though this link to a Truth About Guns article may be informative. If LaPierre and the three other NRA executives have indeed done what according to James’ rhetoric, surely seems like crimes, why are there no indictments? Wouldn’t someone like James just love to see anyone associated with the NRA doing the perp walk? Of course she would, so it’s reasonable to suspect there are no indictments because there are no crimes, or at the very least, any evidence of a crime is so weak even a D/S/C prosecutor won’t go for a warrant.
This is not a surprise. The only surprise would be if it is not coordinated with James and the D/S/C hierarchy:
Also on Thursday, Washington D.C. District Attorney Karl Racine announced his office was suing the NRA Foundation for ‘misusing charitable funds.’ He has been investigating the NRA Foundation for more than a year.
‘Donors gave money to fund firearms safety, firearms education and marksmanship training,’ Racine alleged. ‘Instead, that money was diverted to support wasteful spending by the NRA and its executives.’
Again, if there are crimes, why no indictments? Because their goal is not to punish criminal wrongdoing and ensure justice for those served by the NRA, but to help Joe Biden, harm normal Americans, do anything possible to hinder President Trump’s re-election effort, and seize ultimate political power. The National Shooting Sports Foundation notes:
NSSF, the trade association for the firearm industry, is troubled by the politically-driven decision of New York Attorney General Letitia James to seek to dissolve the National Rifle Association, America’s oldest civil rights organization. The lawsuit filed today by Attorney General James seeks to punish the over five million members of the National Rifle Association based on mere allegations of possible wrongdoing by a few individuals.
NSSF is deeply concerned about the apparent political agenda to silence the strongest voice in support of the Second Amendment ahead of the election in November.
This lawsuit, and one filed today by the District of Columbia Attorney General, should concern all Americans who cherish both the First and Second Amendments to our Constitution regardless of their views on what laws and regulations are appropriate to address the criminal misuse of firearms.
Final Thoughts:
Why is the NRA chartered in New York State, a state government that not only hates guns, gun owners, and the Second Amendment, but is overtly hostile to all? Why wouldn’t the NRA, long ago, have moved operations to states friendly to the Constitution?
Should there be a housecleaning at the highest levels of the NRA? Have they mismanaged funds, and in so doing put the effectiveness of the NRA, hence, our constitutional liberties at risk? It’s possible there is evidence of mismanagement, if not crimes. If so, it is certainly not necessary to “dissolve” the NRA to excise whatever rot exists.
No organization in the never-wavering crosshairs of the D/S/C/Resistance can afford even the appearance of impropriety. And even were that not true, any organization whose reason for being is the preservation of a fundamental, unalienable liberty can afford to be anything other than strictly legal and ethical in its operations. Every member of the NRA should and must call for a completely independent audit, and should, if malfeasance is found, demand the removal of those responsible.
That said, James’ actions are clearly a part of the continuing coup attempt. It’s a blatant and transparent attempt to tie up in legal fees the funds that would otherwise be spent to secure the Second Amendment and reelect President Trump. As long as the Second Amendment exists and has application in the lives of Americans, D/S/Cs totalitarian desires can never be brought to fruition. They really do hate us, and they really do want us disarmed and at their mercy. They smell blood in the water. Let it be—figuratively—theirs.
‘No organization in the never-wavering crosshairs of the D/S/C/Resistance can afford even the appearance of impropriety.’
Worrying about appearances is what keeps Leftist opponents constantly on the defensive. Leftists don’t give a damn about appearances except situationally; that’s certainly the way they police their own. Guess who chose not to play by those rules? Donald J Trump.
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