John, now might be a good time to look back at the 2019 U.S. Senate Committee on Finance minority staff report called The NRA and Russia: How a Tax-Exempt Organization Became a Foreign Asset1.
The report, initiated at the request of Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), was the culmination of an 18-month investigation into the NRA's relationship with Russia.
Since then, the NRA has attempted a failed bankruptcy and been embroiled in legal fights with its former public relations firm and with the state of New York. We've learned about Wayne LaPierre's botched elephant hunt2 and how he had fled to a yacht in the Bahamas after high profile gun violence tragedies3.
After all that, elected leaders continue to rubber stamp the NRA's agenda. Their allies in Congress continue to block even the most basic common-sense gun safety laws, defying widespread public support. And state lawmakers and governors continue to pass dangerous gun laws that were literally written by NRA lobbyists.
As they double down on their extreme agenda, other gun lobby organizations are gaining strength, and right-wing extremist groups are more emboldened than ever.
Our mission is to end gun violence in America, and that includes changing the reckless laws that the NRA has wrought on our country and the pervasive culture of gun violence that we live with everyday. We're taking them on in statehouses, courthouses, city halls, and the halls of Congress.
We depend on grassroots donations from supporters like you to take on the gun lobby and power our work. Please, rush your donation of $9 or whatever you can to help us end the gun lobby's influence on our gun laws and work every day to end gun violence.
Change is possible, and it's already happening—and it's going to take the power of our entire movement to keep going.
Thank you for being with us.
Everytown for Gun Safety
1. "The NRA and Russia: How a Tax-Exempt Organization Became a Foreign Asset" (U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, September 2019)
2. "The Secret Footage of the N.R.A. Chief’s Botched Elephant Hunt" (The New Yorker, April 27, 2021)
3. "After school shootings, NRA exec sought refuge on 108-foot yacht: 'Thank God I’m safe'" (The Washington Post, April 6, 2021)
