On Friday, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke called for the NRA to lose its tax-exempt status because NRA officials have “misused funds for the personal enrichment of its senior executives,” particularly in conjunction with their NRA-sponsored trips to Russia. As we already knew, the NRA long ago shifted focus away from responsible gun ownership to pushing for more and more gun sales, no matter what the cost in terms of lives lost to gun violence.
Given the reality that far too many Republican politicians are terrified of losing their offices if they support commonsense legislation that will address the gun violence epidemic because the NRA will then target them, it seems unlikely that those same politicians will ever listen to those of us who support gun safety legislation unless we can mobilize to vote them out.
But we also need to stop allowing the NRA to pretend that it exists for any reason other than the personal enrichment of its officials and gun manufacturers. So Beto pointed out what should have been obvious for years, if not decades, now: “The NRA’s tax-exempt status has always been illegitimate, and now, there is no doubt it should be revoked.”
Full text of statement below.
Beto calls for IRS to revoke NRA’s Tax-Exempt Status
El Paso, Texas — Following reports that the NRA acted as a “foreign asset” ahead of the 2016 election and misused funds for the personal financial enrichment of its senior executives, Beto called this morning for the NRA to be stripped of its tax-exempt status.
“The NRA’s tax-exempt status has always been illegitimate, and now, there is no doubt it should be revoked,” said Beto O’Rourke. “Driven by greed, the NRA has captured and corrupted our government — resulting in its inaction on confronting the epidemic of gun violence in America. For an organization that speaks so frequently of the sanctity of our Constitution, it’s clear they ultimately have little regard for it.”
Today, the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic staff released a report detailing how, ahead of the 2016 election, the NRA repeatedly helped to connect Russian officials with senior Republican leaders and influential conservative organizations, going so far as to pay for their travel and lodging in some instances. Additionally, the Senate found that the NRA lied about its senior executives’ travel to Russia. While the NRA claimed after the fact that these senior officials traveled in a personal capacity, the report uncovered multiple internal NRA documents that described the trips as official NRA events.
Most significantly, with regards to the NRA’s tax-exempt status, the report found that NRA officials pursued personal business interests on these NRA-sponsored trips to Russia. As tax-exempt organizations are not permitted to use funds for personal financial gain, the organization’s tax-exempt status should be revoked.
It is long past time that we take on the NRA, and I am glad that Beto, March for Our Lives, Moms Demand Action, Giffords Courage, Everytown, Sandy Hook Promise, and so many others groups are leading the way.
Petition — The NRA should lose its tax-exempt status:
Following reports that the NRA acted as a foreign asset ahead of the 2016 election and misused funds for the personal enrichment of its senior executives, Beto called this morning for the NRA to be stripped of its tax-exempt status.
The NRA repeatedly helped connect Russian officials with senior Republican leaders and influential conservative organizations, and lied about their senior executives' travels to Russia. NRA officials also pursued personal business interests on NRA-sponsored trips to Russia. Tax-exempt organizations are not permitted to use funds for personal political gain.
Sign on if you agree that the NRA's tax-exempt status must be revoked.
PS Thought y’all might enjoy seeing this:
Please check out Beto’s vision and plans at BetoORourke.com and donate to his campaign, which is powered by people, not PACs or special interests or corporations.
Volunteer for Beto: act.BetoORourke.com/signup/volunteer
We’re now trying to reach 47 donations to Beto’s campaign for his 47th birthday!