Republican state attorneys general battered New York’s Democratic AG as a political opportunist bent on destroying the National Rifle Association out of personal animus rather than any concern for the law.
Sixteen GOP AGs on Wednesday attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James’ motives for pursuing the NRA in a bankruptcy court brief filed on Wednesday.
As the Washington Examiner recently recounted, James sued the NRA in state court last August, accusing the group’s leaders, including Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s most recognizable figure, of using donations for their own personal gain and expenses. James used the allegations of malfeasance as a springboard to dissolve the NRA.
The NRA, in turn, filed a countersuit claiming political persecution and accusing James of violating its First Amendment rights, the Examiner explained. The group also filed for bankruptcy in January in an effort to flee James, by relocating to Texas, to safeguard its assets.
In their filing this week, the Republicans characterized the NRA as “the country’s foremost Second Amendment advocacy organization and one of the strongest voices against government overreach.” But its future is threatened because “James disagrees with the NRA’s efforts to defend the individual constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
The group called James’s action “politically motivated.” Her design is “to silence one of the country’s most powerful voices in defense of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” they maintained.
“New York doesn’t allege that the NRA itself or its membership have done anything illegal,” the GOP AGs argue. “To the contrary, New York purports to be acting in the interest of the NRA’s members. But it’s difficult to fathom how New York believes dissolution of the country’s oldest civil rights organization and silencing those members’ most powerful defender could possibly be in the best interest of the NRA’s members.”
Other News: Almost Daily Biden Test The ‘Fact-Checkers,’ As His Tax-Hike Plan Reveals Another Fib
“Dissolving the NRA would leave its members with less of a voice and more vulnerable to New York’s efforts to undermine civil liberties. But that’s precisely the point. Whatever New York’s purported justification for dissolving the NRA, New York’s real goal is to undermine the Second Amendment and silence those who oppose its effort,” they argued in court records. “Indeed, the New York AG campaigned for office on a platform of taking down the NRA by any means possible. To accomplish that goal, New York has weaponized its not-for-profit governance laws and now seeks to use them in unprecedented and heretofore unthinkable ways.”
“There is no ill motive behind the NRA’s decision to leave New York for greener pastures. Given the history of politically motivated targeting of the NRA by New York government officials — its AG being the most notable among them — it isn’t surprising that New York is unwilling to roll over and allow the NRA to continue its advocacy elsewhere,” the Republicans say.
“But there is nothing improper about the NRA pursuing reorganization to ensure that it emerges intact from its ongoing battle with its powerful politically motivated opponents. Seeking to thwart responsible government oversight is one thing; getting out from under the thumb of government officials abusing their office is another.”
The NRA, they conclude, is “the oldest civil rights organization in America. It cannot simply be replaced if it is dissolved.”
The GOP AGs who rallied around the NRA include Alabama’s Steve Marshall; Alaska’s Treg Taylor; Arkansas’s Leslie Rutledge; Georgia’s Chris Carr; Idaho’s Lawrence Wadsen; Kentucky’s Daniel Cameron; Louisiana’s Jeff Landry; Mississippi’s Lynn Fitch; Missouri’s Eric Schmitt; Montana’s Austin Knudsen; Ohio’s Dave Yost; Oklahoma’s Mike Hunter; South Carolina’s Alan Wilson; South Dakota’s Jason Ravnsborg; Utah’s Sean Reyes; and West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey.
Support journalism by clicking here to our gofundme or sign up for our free newsletter by clicking here.