Wayne LaPierre, the highly influential head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), America's leading firearms lobby, announced on Friday, January 5, 2024, that he would resign from office three days before the opening of his corruption trial in New York.
“Proud of all we have accomplished, I announce that I am resigning from the NRA.”the 74-year-old said in a statement from the organization, which claims to have more than five million members.
For more than three decades, this tireless defender of the right to bear arms individually has been the familiar face of the NRA, an association weakened by recent affairs but which nonetheless retains formidable influence over elected officials.
Under the leadership of Wayne LaPierre, the lobby has become extremely active against political leaders it funds or disparages, and has managed to block legislative proposals in Congress that it deems unfavorable.
For example, in 2016, the NRA donated tens of millions of dollars to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Gunsmith salesman
Wayne LaPierre is leaving the NRA leadership as he prepares to launch a legal battle against New York City Attorney Letitia James (the judge already battling Donald Trump) during a civil trial set to open Monday .) respectively.
Ms. James led a 15-month investigation that resulted in a deeply embarrassing revelation of the major lobbying chief suspected of receiving lavish personal expenses from the NRA and otherwise misusing company assets.
After the public prosecutor's office had tried in vain to achieve the dissolution of the NRA and at the same time to demand the withdrawal of Mr. LaPierre, it considers this second goal to have been achieved even before the start of the trial.
Portrayed by his critics as a super-gunsmith salesman, Wayne LaPierre is probably one of the most hated men in the United States.
On the contrary, he is revered by millions of other Americans who appreciate his diatribes directed at billionaires “socialists” George Soros or Michael Bloomberg, Democrats, Hollywood elites, universities or the Black Lives Matter movement.
His words in 2012 after another deadly school shooting had an impact: “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”.