The National Rifle Association announced Friday that it plans to seek bankruptcy protection and reincorporate in Texas. While the gun-rights group’s main offices are in Fairfax, Virginia, it is incorporated in New York, which it now plans to leave due to what it says is the state’s “corrupt political and regulatory environment.”
Of course, New York is also where the state attorney general, Letitia James, has filed a suit that seeks to dissolve the NRA, citing what her office describes as the organization’s “culture of self-dealing, mismanagement, and negligent oversight.” It’s also where the NRA agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine last year and said it would stop selling its “Carry Guard” insurance. The NRA has countersued, claiming James’ action was political.
Last year DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed a different suit against the group’s charitable foundation, which, somewhat confusingly, is headquartered in the District.
The NRA’s release says the organization is in its “strongest financial condition in years,” though the Washington Free Beacon reported last year that its membership dues fell in 2019 while its legal costs ballooned, and that it had cut expenses. The group spent $21 million less on the 2020 election than it did on the 2016 election, Free Beacon reporter Stephen Gutowski wrote, and it later poured millions into the Georgia Senate runoffs, both of which were won by Democrats.
Don’t expect to see any moving trucks outside the group’s Fairfax headquarters just yet: The NRA says it will remain in Virginia while it determines whether moving those operations to Texas “is in the best interests of its members.”
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
