The NRA Just Told a NY Court It May Have to Shut Down Due to a Lack of Revenue. Sounds Good to Us
The National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest gun manufacturer lobby, has one job: To derail conversations about firearm regulation following any mass shooting. They do this by trollishly blaming gun violence on mental illness and a lack of guns anywhere humans exist. But perhaps we won’t have to put up with their BS much longer as a recent New York state court filing by the NRA says the organization may soon “be unable to exist… or pursue its advocacy mission” thanks to businesses cutting off their financial dealings with the NRA. Yippee.
The NRA has long been a political target of some gay political activists. A May 2018 ad from openly gay New Mexico politician Pat Davis announced, “Fuck the NRA”; a March 2018 ad from a teenage survivor of the Parkland high school shooting asked, “What if our politicians weren’t the bitch of the NRA?”; and in October 2017, Gays Against Guns, a group formed after the Pulse nightclub shooting, called the NRA “a terrorist organization.”
RELATED | What A Gay Gun Rights Group Says About the Orlando Shooting
But to understand the National Rifle Association’s current financial woes, you have to go back to May 2018.
Back in May, New York financial regulators discovered the National Rifle Association illegally selling “Carry Guard” insurance which “unlawfully provided liability insurance to gun owners for certain acts of intentional wrongdoing.” The insurance provider decided to discontinue its Carry Guard policies, cutting off one source of NRA funding.
Two months the February 2018 Parkland school shooting, New York’s Department of Financial Services sent out a letter asking all New York insurers to “consider” their relationship to the NRA. Additionally, New York Governor Andre Cuomo “urge[d] companies in New York State to revisit any ties they have to the NRA and consider their reputations and responsibility to the public,” via Twitter (below).
The NRA is an extremist organization.
I urge companies in New York State to revisit any ties they have to the NRA and consider their reputations, and responsibility to the public. https://t.co/RwD9wdNxiY
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 20, 2018
Because many New York-based insurers and businesses also conduct business nationwide, the National Rifle Association now says that New York’s “interference” has cost the NRA millions in lost revenue, leaving it financially vulnerable as banks and insurers continue to refuse their services. So the National Rifle Association is now suing the state of New York for its interference.
A 2016 financial disclosure form shows the National Rifle Association was $46 million over budget that year. In today’s court filing, the NRA says that without insurers and banks willing to certify their live events and media efforts, its day-to-day operations, magazines, physical headquarters, political dealings and video channel won’t be able to continue.
Is it too early to bust out the champagne?
