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Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, has announced he is resigning from the organization days before the start of a civil corruption trial.
LaPierre, 74, cited health reasons, according to the NRA. The resignation will be effective Jan. 31.
“With pride in all that we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said in a statement. “I’ve been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever.”
NRA President Charles Cotton said he had accepted LaPierre’s resignation during a board meeting on Friday.
Andrew Arulanandam, head of operations for the NRA, will become interim executive vice president.
NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre speaks at the National Rifle Association annual convention in Indianapolis, April 14, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters, FILE
The civil trial, slated to start Monday, will still go forward.
New York Attorney General Letitia James accused LaPierre of gross negligence for allegedly diverting millions from the NRA for personal use, including for designer clothes, private planes and luxury goods. The accusations came at the end of three-year investigation into the NRA in August 2020.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said at the time. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.”
LaPierre said, at the time, the lawsuit was an “unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA — the fiercest defender of America’s freedom at the ballot box for decades.”
LaPierre has served as executive vice president of the NRA, the country’s most prominent gun advocacy group, since 1991.
“On behalf of the NRA Board of Directors, I thank Wayne LaPierre for his service,” Cotton said in a statement. “Wayne has done as much to protect Second Amendment freedom as anyone. Wayne is a towering figure in the fight for constitutional freedom, but one of his other talents is equally important: he built an organization that is bigger than him.”
LaPierre has long rankled critics of America’s gun violence problem as the NRA fought to prevent assault weapons bans and tougher background checks.
“The NRA has been in a doom spiral for years, and Wayne LaPierre’s resignation is yet another massive setback for an organization that’s already at rock bottom,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. “LaPierre’s legacy will be one of corruption, mismanagement, and the untold destruction gun violence has brought to every American community. The NRA’s declining membership, finances, and political power spell disaster for the organization heading into the 2024 elections.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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