By: Teresa Mull
New York’s attorney general wants to dissolve the National Rifle Association, claiming it is “fraught with fraud and abuse.”
NPR reports:
Attorney General Letitia James claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that she found financial misconduct in the millions of dollars and that it contributed to a loss of more than $64 million over a three-year period.
The suit alleges that top NRA executives misused charitable funds for personal gain, awarded contracts to friends and family members, and provided contracts to former employees to ensure loyalty.
Seeking to dissolve the NRA is the most aggressive sanction James could have sought against the not-for-profit organization, which James has jurisdiction over because it is registered in New York. James has a wide range of authorities relating to nonprofits in the state, including the authority to force organizations to cease operations or dissolve. The NRA is all but certain to contest it.
The NRA has labeled James’ action a “baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend…” adding, “…we not only will not shrink from this fight – we will confront it and prevail.”
Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.