The National Rifle Association filed for Chapter 11 protection around mid-January, a move that stemmed from ongoing litigation between the organization and New York. Letitia James, New York’s Attorney General, sued the NRA in 2020 over alleged financial irregularities. The lawsuit’s allegations primarily mention that the NRA disguised lavish trips as business expenses, but the organization is disputing these charges and stating that reimbursement for personal spending is common practice. Planned bankruptcy is just the initial step for the National Rifle Association, with ongoing plans to reincorporate as a Texas nonprofit and avoid looming creditors. Texas is well-known for ruling on the side of debtors and is seen as a pro-gun state, which could explain the NRA’s optimism towards the legal restructuring. Will Texas ignore the ongoing legal and financial implications to have a partnership with this organization? The NRA’s confusing situation symbolizes the ongoing uncertainties that gun owners face. Many first-time gun owners mentioned concerns about COVID-19 and its implications for law enforcement. Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting estimated that there were 2.5 million gun sales in March 2020, an 85% increase compared to March 2019. How will COVID-19 change this hot topic and how will the NRA’s legal implications change the conversation on guns? I reached out to Thomas McEnroe, the owner of TXT Custom Gun Works, to discuss the reality behind guns during this pandemic.
The NRA has their headquarters and most of their operations in Virginia. Josh Wolfshohl, a bankruptcy attorney at Porter Hedges LLP, has stated that the NRA is seeking a legal reformation in Texas because they “probably figured they’d have a friendlier judge in Texas”. What is your prediction behind the state’s reaction to this proposal and is there anything that Texas gains out of the deal?
The whole NRA thing is a really interesting topic because the gun community is probably one of the most inclusive communities ever. Americans of all walks of life participate in gun ownership and the NRA has always been a fairly decent representation of that diversity because the NRA from its origin was always a representation of gun owners. If you ever get an opportunity, go to one of the NRA annual conventions, because it’s really interesting to see the diversity of people, the diversity of products. It’s not a whole bunch of just rednecks walking around in camouflage. It’s very much people from all walks of life. Its moms in yoga pants and business execs and everyone in between. So the entire reason I said that is because I wanted to kind of give an understanding of what the NRA represents. So, yes, the NRA is one of the largest lobbying organization, but not because of money or campaign contributions or anything like that, but because of how many Americans it’s made up of. Unfortunately, because of the stance and how politicized the 2nd Amendment is, The NRA as a whole, has been vilified for 15 or 20 years by the anti-gun groups and a lot of the mainstream media. I would definitely say in the last 10, it’s been worse and then there’s been internal issues, no one debates that one. So, with the internal issues with people like Wayne LaPierre who have been in charge of the organization for a very long time and packed the top of the organization with his cronies and been able to kind of turn it into a personal slush fund. Now add in the fact that we have anti-gun politicians that are using their power as a tool to shut down their opposition (the NRA) and it is how we see the state of New York, specifically the NY AG going after the NRA in the courts.
The way I see it, she’s using the internal issues with the upper echelon of the NRA and her power with the courts to attach the NRA on a multi angled political fight.
Now in regard to the internal issues, people like myself have been actively trying to change the NRA from the inside out for years now. And we’ve been voting in people that we feel would be better to manage it and better to run it. There are several board members that are active with the NRA that are working hard to help build the NRA back up and bring it back to what we expect it to be. One of these people is a Vice President Magpul Industries, Duane Liptak. He has been a valuable asset not only to the NRA but the gun community as a whole and works hard to preserve American’s 2nd Amendment Rights. Now the move to Texas, it is definitely a political one, currently the NRA is based in a far from gun-friendly state with a DA that is actively trying to destroy the organization and not because of the things that the organization has done, but because of what the organization represents. It represents the second amendment for all American gun owners. Most people that are, like I said, very involved in the gun community are disgusted by the upper management of the NRA and want to see change and want to see Wayne and his cronies removed so we can rebuild it. That being said, myself and many others are involved in other organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation, The Firearms Policy Coalition, The American Suppressor Association, TSRA, and countless more. There there’s a bunch of groups that we still put money in, but they just don’t have the long-standing name and strength that the NRA does. And so, we’re trying to fix it from the inside out. By moving it to Texas, I think that it won’t hurt or harm, or have any benefit either way. It’s kind of a neutral thing, I think it’s more of an organization going to an area where they can focus on the mission of the organization rather than fighting political battles.
And I think that’s the biggest thing, with the relocation is, by bringing it to Texas they’re in a state that’s not going to actively try to shut them down unless they do something illegal. So, as I said, it’s a multifaceted issue, we have the problems with the leadership, then you have the political issues of, the anti-gun community that’s vilifying the NRA and a constant culture war. It’s a very in-depth kind of situation, which is why I wanted to have the conversation over the phone and have the ability to explain things more in depth. Gun owners, aren’t happy with what’s happening with the upper part of the NRA, we want it to change but we also understand that the NRA is very important tool in protecting our rights because of the strength in numbers and the long-term relationships that it has in Washington, and the state governments. At the same time, there are outside political forces that are actively trying to paint the NRA as terrorists and that they need to be completely shut down. And anybody that’s a member should not have any type of public office and everything else. I want to say San Francisco declared the NRA, a terrorist organization recently, and so, anybody that’s a city employee that’s known as a member of the NRA can be terminated for cause, because of it. And like I said, it’s an interesting kind of situation that’s not very clean or cut and dry. I think the move to Texas has some benefits for the organization because it will hopefully give the ability once the lawsuit is kind of out of the picture, it’ll give the people the ability to restructure the tops, in the direction that we want it to go.
Wayne LaPierre, a longtime NRA executive, notified staff in an April 2020 company-wide email that layoffs would occur. This was due to the pending deficit of 50 million dollars which the organization reported in a 2019 form 990. Are there external factors that have led to this organization’s financial decline and would the collapse of the NRA have negative connotations for gun organizations?
I think it’s a combination. There’s been some poor decision-making by the executives. Again, a few of them treated it like their personal slush fund. But there was a little bit of complacency during the Trump administration where there wasn’t as much of a feeling that gun rights were a threat, or, gun ownership and the second amendment being threatened. There were a lot of people that were upset with the upper management and the financial decisions and the way that the top half was running the NRA. And so, they weren’t putting their support in it. And so, if you’ve got a couple of million members that quit paying dues because they’re not happy with the way things are run, that’s also going to put a hit on the finances, but they’re constantly tied up in legal battles, not just the New York kind of stuff, but fighting gun laws in California and New Jersey and Chicago and DC and all these places. So that’s expensive as well.
California experienced a surge of new demographics over the past year with 43% of gun buyers being first-time gun owners. Emily Atkinson, the creator of Ade’s Gun Shop in Orange Country, noticed women making up a large majority of new clients that come in. Why has 2020 been the year of first-time gun owners and what has been the marketing approaches to reach women demographics?
I don’t really do a whole bunch of marketing, but I have a whole bunch of conversation. So, if it’s a first-time gun owner, I’m going to have a much more different conversation than somebody who’s a competitive shooter that’s been doing this for 25 years. It’s very much about getting the person the tool that they need. One of my big things is the mission drives the gear. And so, personally, I carry a different pistol every day than I do with my competition pistol, or, I may have five or six different AR-15s and each one has a different purpose. So, it’s not like I just have a repetitive, you know, I don’t have the same rifle set up for everything.
Each one’s got a role. And so, with new gun owners, the big part is making sure that you have the conversation to get them the equipment or the firearm placement that’s going to be best for their use. Is it going to be a concealed carry piece? Is it going to be a home defense piece? And just having those conversations about what are your plans. These are all very important things when you look at them. I would put it the same, you know, similar conversations, if you’re, buying a vehicle. Somebody who’s never going to pull a trailer doesn’t need a truck or an SUV. You need to have that relationship with the person to figure out what their goal is, so you can get them the right thing. The thing with women specifically, I would say in the last five or 10 years, there has been a push to encourage women to take control and have the ability for self-defense. There’s an old American gunmaker, Samuel Colt, who mentioned a gun is the ultimate equalizer. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re old or young or fat or skinny able-bodied or have a disability. Having a firearm gives you the ability to defend yourself on equal ground as anybody else. In light of things like the #metoo movement more and more women have taken a more active role in being accountable for their own personal safety. This includes more women purchasing firearms, getting their concealed carry permit, taking defensive classes and getting more involved overall in the gun community. You’re starting to see more and more female-centric holsters, equipment, accessories and even female gun owner/conceal carries clothing companies. We are seeing an increase of female-focused shooting, female focus training and an amazing increase of female instructors.
The Center for American Progress has spoken about gun ownership during COVID-19 and stated that two-thirds of causalities by guns are due to suicides. A 2010-2018 report by the National Crime Victimization Survey also reports on 1.4 million gun thefts that occurred in this country. How would you rate the level of training amongst U.S gun owners and is there any role that the government needs to play in guns?
New gun owners usually end up hanging around my shop and we talk for an hour or two. I give them as much information they’re able to absorb like safety, how the firearm operates, and different techniques for storage. I personally don’t teach anymore. I just don’t have time, but I give them my list of go to instructors and give them kind of a direction when it comes to training. I’ve been shooting my entire life and a couple of weeks ago I went and took a two-day training class that was a lot of fundamentals because shooting is a perishable skill. And so even myself, somebody who’s put hundreds of thousands of rounds downrange over the years, I still take training classes to make sure my skills are proficient. So that’s brought into the conversation that you need to practice, you need to spend time, get a formal education from different training and different instructors. There’s a handful that I always recommend, some specifically for females, I have one friend who is a top female instructor in the Fort Worth area that will always recommend to female customers who are looking for female focused classes, as well as self-defense classes and a handful of other things. I push everybody I can into always take that next step of training. It’s not just being about mediocrity; it’s trying to be the best that you can.
One other thing that I’m a very big advocate about is educating children about proper firearm safety. I firmly believe that if you eliminate the curiosity and you teach respect and, and remove the ignorance around firearms with children, it makes firearm ownership as a parent/family member overall safer. So, I’m not saying leave guns out, they absolutely need to be secure, but I also don’t think that we need to hide guns from kids. So, if a parent owns a firearm, don’t stick it in a shoebox at the top of your closet and never tell your kids about it because what’s going to happen is kids get curious and they go searching for things. Well, if they’re eight, nine years old and they find it and they have the education and the understanding and the utmost respect for it, they’re not going to mess with it. They’re going to see it and move on. I go over that and I make a big focus on the best processes and applications that I’ve seen in my experience and expertise with firearm safety. So for instance, I have a three-year-old and the majority of my firearms are locked in the safe but my defensive guns are in a position where they are still accessible to myself or my wife but absolutely no possible way that he can get his hands on them and potentially harm himself or others. Even at 3 we have been working with him, he knows not to touch the firearms, we explain safety with him, he knows that if he sees a firearm, he needs to let me or his mom know and, he’s developing the understanding and the respect for firearms and shooting. He has also been around shooting competitions since he was about 3 months old and he’s starting to develop that understanding and that respect.
City Crime Stats looked at 28 major cities impacted by this pandemic and noticed that examples like Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago saw overall crime decrease by over 30%. While aggravated assault, robberies, and drug violence have shown significant declines, homicides are steadily increasing. Why are there different trajectories between most crime and homicides?
I think gun sales are going to be high, for the next several years because, ultimately right now we’re seeing a shift in policing. You had a couple of these instances during the Obama and Trump administrations where we saw Black Lives Matter protests and riots. What ended up happening was called the Ferguson effect and it was very reactionary policing. Cops were scared that if they were being proactive or trying to actively police, and something went sideways that, would get potentially in jail. Because of the reactionary policing, you saw a drastic increase in crime. I think what we’re doing is we’re seeing this on a large scale. You look at even places like Dallas, where they’re no longer sending officers to robberies or burglaries, they’re not prosecuting, and you’re basically limiting the amount of active police work and the police investigation that’s going on. So, if they’re not arresting and convicting people, crime rates are going to go down. If you’re going to call the police and they’re not going to do anything, why are you going to call the police? So, it’s causing a statistical anomaly in the actual numbers. So, although we may or may not see an active change in crime right now, the numbers look like they’re going down because the enforcement’s going down. I think for a while, you’re going to see, because of the anti-kind of police culture that you’re witnessing throughout the country, you’re going to see a large number of departments being short officers, you’re going to see a change in protocol. So, you’re going to see violent crimes rising up because those are the ones that are still reported and investigated, and everything else is kind of going to go by the wayside for a while until communities get sick of it and they want their police back.
