In 2011, the organization refused an offer to discuss gun control with U.S. President Barack Obama. In response to the invitation, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said “Why should I or the N.R.A. go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?”

The arrogance and bullshit of this is just overwhelming. Even if they believed that Obama and the rest of his adminsitration were all anti-gun, they lose nothing by talking to them. Only paranoid nutjobs could actually believe this to be true, but even if they did, what is lost by showing up, stating your piece? Avoiding the conversation makes it seem far more like the NRA exists to take in donations and exert political power than it does to honestly represent its members best interests.

Especially when a majority of members actually support gun control.

It is really sad that people still support this organization. I had not seriously looked into them before, and Wayne LaPierre’s statements are hyperbolically asinine. That NRA members support this sort of speech is contemptible and cowardly.

And it is not a transparent organization:

According to the Better Business Bureau’s web site, the NRA does not fall within the BBB’s scope of Standards for Charity Accountability. They do note the following financials for the NRA as of December 31, 2004. The NRA’s CEO, Wayne LaPierre, received a yearly salary of $895,897 in 2004. They also indicated that fundraising costs accounted for 46% of the contributions received. The NRA is a 501(c)(4) organization and indicated that the NRA’s total income in 2004 was $205,402,491 and had expenses of $206,886,970. Total NRA assets at the end of 2004 were $222,841,128.

Finally, the NRA actually has a separate 501(c)3, the NRA Foundation, that does education and gun safety; saying you support the NRA for gun safety is not a sufficient excuse.