NRA Headquarters…deteriorating???

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Well, here goes nuthin':

Has it occurred to anyone that perhaps the dues-paying day-to-day members are not dissatisfied with the way things are run at the NRA and all the fussin' and fumin' is from a numerically inferior faction tickled and taunted by prompts from the general enemies of the NRA?

Jist askin'. No 'ffense to any individuals, jist askin'.

I offer this for purely informational purposes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column

A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel.
I add, parenthetically, that such fifth column activity can be generated by rival entities.

Again, no offense, but ya gotta look at all the possibilities, doncha?

As I said above,
I don't know about you, but I'd like the exec for my lobbying organization to wear $500 shoes, $1000 suits, $75 shirts, and $50 ties when addressing the news or my representative in Congress or the Senate.
I forgot to add "and $25 socks."

Terry, "Check your fury at the door, just asking," 230RN
 
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Has it occurred to anyone that perhaps the dues-paying day-to-day members are not dissatisfied with the way things are run at the NRA and all the fussin' and fumin' is from a numerically inferior faction tickled and taunted by prompts from the general enemies of the NRA?

The enemies of the NRA remain in control of the organization.

The NY AG filed a superseding indictment that includes information gleaned from the unauthorized and miserably failed "bankruptcy" lawsuit. that cost "the dues paying day-to-day" NRA members at least 20 million dollars.

Peruse the New York attorney general's charge sheet and the charge sheet drawn up against the NRA Foundation by the the DC attorney general.

Microsoft Word - Amended and Supplemental NYAG Complaint - 8.16.2021 (FINAL FINAL) - 2.48pm (state.ny.us)





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Wow, if you read through that whole ‘new’ NYAG complaint,,, James is going to hang WLP out to dry and spinn in the wind…Took time to read the throw thing,,,,detailed, and very damaging to WLP.

don’t know what is going to come of it,,,,but looks like WLP and his ‘cronies’ better ‘head for the hills’.
 
Is that not always their excuse?

They had no choice ... it was someone else's fault ... therefore they took the path owned by the lesser of the two evils.

Then blame it on someone else again.

Who does that remind you of by chance? Most certainly not the one you indicted in your version of what happened. Matter of fact the one you mentioned three (3) times has expressed his mea culpa and vowed to reverse it first chance he gets.

Either way, the phrase you failed to include is, "it was a no win situation." Not in the short term anyway but the NRA refused to force it into a long term debate because it definitely was a morally emotional time, among some. That's what I think, just maybe, perhaps, you were getting-at? In #5? But instead you played the Trump Card. Rather than, in the heat of the moment it was a no win situation.

We try hard to avoid dangling that (Trump Card) sort of political bait around here do we not GEM? Shame on you.

ETA: BTW I agree completely with you on point #2. Shame on him for laying down that easily. It infuriated many of us when he did that and he soon came to realize that he acted far too quickly. Hopefully he learned his lesson when it comes to 2A issues in the future.
The Dems have no standi
<editorial>

On The Well-Dressed 800 Pound Gorilla

The bastiges won. They've been after the 6-million member organization for decades.

I don't know about you, but I'd like the exec for my lobbying organization to wear $500 shoes, $1000 suits, $75 shirts, and $50 ties when addressing the news or my representative in Congress or the Senate.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We mere hobbyists do not understand public relations.

The bastiges won.

Next up? That horrid Second Amendment itself. May take another five decades, but without that 800 pound gorilla in the way, it will be a lot easier and quicker.

Terry, 230RN

</editorial>
Members should not have to pay for his wardrobe.
 
They furloughed one curator who had to retire. There is no registrar for the collection. They lost their AMA certification too. The collection is not safe.
 
If a General screws up, you relieve and replace the General. You don't disband the army and let the enemy take over.

Of course that would delight the enemy.

Terry, 230RN
And the BoD just re-elected WLP to his position as EVP.
 
The Museum is the main reason for visiting the NRA HQ. If the Museum is closed, there goes my excuse for going there.

Shenanigans at the Museum are more troubling than the condition of the roof, or even WLP's wardrobe. (Anyone who donates his/her guns, going forward, is being very unwise.)
 
There should be at least one NRA director on this forum that can tell us what is going one with the building.
When you work for a large multimillion dollar business/political organization, and your title is "director", the last thing you do is come onto an internet forum and comment to us shlubs without authorization from the people you work for.
 
What AlexanderA says is correct. For those who are unaware, the registrar is responsible for the collection should should know at a moment's notice the location of an object. No registrar means things can walk and no one will know the better. Under those circumstances, I'd leave nothing for that museum.
 
Under those circumstances, I'd leave nothing for that museum.
Some people might consider donating their guns to the Smithsonian, as an alternative. But the Smithsonian isn't exempt from "shenanigans," either. There's a conception that gifts to the Smithsonian are in perpetuity. But the Smithsonian sells off "excess" items all the time. And sometimes, these sales involve self-dealing by the curators. I've even known museum volunteers who have benefited from these kinds of arrangements.
 
Museums get donations all the time, and sometimes items are redundant, or possibly in a condition that would not display well. (Besides, how many Ruger Single Sixes do they need?) Shelf space, whether display or storage comes at a premium, so museums and libraries do sell off "surplus" items, with the proceeds generally going to support the museum. I'm not defending anything, but a museum or library liquidating a few items is not necessarily improper. (Though this certainly does not pass the smell test.)
 
Folks: I am the above referenced museum curator for the NRA National Firearms Museum. Suffice it to say that it is very bad at NRA HQ. I believe that the museum has been allowed to remain closed, now for more than a year and a half, due to major problems. I'll give you folks some background - feel free to skip to the end if you wish.

When I was furloughed in early 2020, the understanding given to the many dozens of staff displaced was that it was a temporary situation and that when COVID rules in the state of Virginia eased - we would all return to work. Bear in mind that the staff furloughed were all over the HQ and were responsible for many daily functions. Our mailroom, for example, was reduced to two staff and NRA departments now have to go down to it to retrieve their mail daily. Certain divisions, like the museum, had only one "essential" staffer allowed to remain. For some reason I was not selected as the essential staff despite having seniority and wider ranging program responsibilities. The individual selected was only responsible for the NRA Gun Collecting program and had little experience with the collection record database. Our Registrar and our FFL person were also furloughed.

Initially the furloughed museum staff had been permitted to use the NRA email system and a VPN (virtual private network) was established to allow me and the Registrar to continue inputting and updating collection records. Then that came to an abrupt halt, as NRA realized that furloughed staff were not allowed by law to continue working - even on a volunteer basis. Now skip forward a year.

Furloughed Museum staff had received little to no information on NRA matters and the NY bankruptcy trial was in full swing. Only glowing pieces in the NRA magazines stating - "all was well" but no mention of staff return. I had completed 35 years with the Association by that point and was nearing early retirement age, so I decided to retire. When furloughed, we had all received notice that we would need to contact NRA Security to return to our offices to retrieve personal belongings. So I did and was told - no problem, come by on this date and time.

Then things went strange. I was told by the "essential" museum staffer that no - I could not come into my office and I would have to provide a list of what material and personal belongings I had. Fortunately - all my personal loans had been logged through our Director, who had retired prior to COVID. The loan contract files were in the Registrar's office and I explained what to do. On the appointed day, I showed up and was directed to the Multi-Purpose Room (in the other tower of the complex) and some of my personal loans were there. Not everything, by any means. I signed for what was there and asked to return in a month for the remainder. I and the Registrar also offered to come in to help locate the missing items.

Fortunately, I had both the Registrar and the FFL person to assist in packing up these loans in both of my cars. The Human Resources Director had intervened and I was allowed to go into the second floor offices and pack up my personal belongings inside my office. If I had been forced to list all my books - it would have been another volume.

At the conclusion of this, I wanted to get a farewell photograph with my Registrar and FFL person in the museum galleries downstairs. Nope - denied by the essential staffer.

I knew that there had been a "VIP" tour that had gone through the galleries recently and pointed that fact out. No matter.

To cut to the chase - several of my personal loan items could not be found, despite having been securly stored in the museum conservation lab and in exhibit cases. It took three more months to get a check from NRA for these missing items. Why so long? The essential staffer refused to answer emails or telephone calls for a three week period and I finally went up the food chain. At that point, I also noted that the essential staffer had not been answering Facebook inquiries (I still had access to the Museum Facebook page). That evidently didn't sit well with the essential staffer as I was removed from the Facebook page and he also unfriended me on Facebook. Oh well. Folks further up the line also slow-tracked my reimbursement and I had to finally contact the NRA Secretary to get any response.

So if you've managed to read through all this. Here's the part that should make your blood boil. At one point in the retrieval of my items, I got a call from an auction house that I knew. They had been unable to reach the Museum essential staffer and wanted to know what the status was on a shipment of museum guns going off to auction. When I went on furlough - we had no such shipment planned. Any deaccessioning of the collection would have to be conducted through established policy and approved by the NRA Gun Collectors Committee. And also ask yourself - where would this money be going?

So have museum guns been removed from the collection? Don't really know. All I know is that to this date - I have not been permitted inside the museum galleries. Those of you that have met me or know of me will recall that I have a near photographic memory for the collection and I really didn't need the collection database to identify or locate any collection item. I fear the reason that neither I or the Registrar were allowed into the galleries was that we would immediately recognize that part of the collection was gone.

The NRA National Firearms Museum remains closed even today, despite just about every other Virginia museum reopening. I sent the essential staffer and his superior information on reopening I had gleaned from visiting other museum, but no response. If you read the Facebook questions being posed on the Museum's page - you'll see a lot of other folks are puzzled why the doors are still shut.

The HQ roof is leaking badly and the NRA legal library on the 6th floor had to be moved to a small building next door. The lower level where the vaults are located has flooded in the past. I have no idea how the collection is faring. In the past, I had a team of volunteers that regularly mornings would go through cases waxing firearms and checking for any problems. When we didn't work in the galleries, we worked down in the vaults. Sadly I recently got a call from a museum lender that had asked from a historic piece back.

He told me his pistol was rusted. That would not have happened when I was on watch. There are millions of dollars of guns just in the galleries.

I am a 4th Generation NRA Life member and was proud to work for the Association for 35 years. Now, not so much...
 
Thank you WiburMills for sharing your insights. I hope you retain an attorney to reclaim your items.

For those who don't know, in Europe they have James Bond type museum robberies with thieves armed with SMG and speedboat getaways or Entrapment with a beautiful Catherine Zeta Jones. It's the heady stuff of movies. Here in America 90% of museum theft is from in-house trusted people including directors, curators, conservators, docents, volunteers, etc. All boring but equally damaging to the institution.
 
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A person in the supposed know says the leaks have stopped since the roof was sealed a few weeks ago. Says there are surplus guns with no historic value that might be moving out.

Now, I have no way to evaluate any of this. Just passing it on.
 
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In better times, careful review of the collection was done by noted collectors like Roy Jinks (S&W), Val Forgett, Ron Peterson, etc. before any firearms were considered for deaccessioning. Now it would appear that one person with limited knowledge is deciding the fate of any guns being sent out to auction. Not a good situation for the collection.
And I went by the HQ a day ago and there were contractor trucks out in front. Thinking there are still ongoing issues with the roof.
 
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