Wayne LaPierre, the longtime CEO of the National Rifle Association, announced his resignation Friday, according to Fox News.
LaPierre worked for the organization for nearly five decades, joining in 1977, and has served as its executive vice president and CEO since 1991, Fox noted. His resignation will be effective January 31, and NRA President Charles Cotton said that Andrew Arulanandam, head of general operations, will step in as interim CEO.
“With pride in all that we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said in a press release obtained by Fox News. “I’ve been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever.”
“On behalf of the NRA Board of Directors, I thank Wayne LaPierre for his service,” Cotton said in the press release. “Wayne has done as much to protect Second Amendment freedom as anyone. Wayne is a towering figure in the fight for constitutional freedom, but one of his other talents is equally important: he built an organization that is bigger than him.”
LaPierre, 74, attributed his resignation to concerns about his health.
LaPierre’s resignation comes as a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the NRA is set to go to trial next week, according to CNN. The suit alleges that the NRA violated laws concerning non-profits and accuses its leaders of using the non-profit’s money for personal use. The suit seeks to dissolve the organization.
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“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said after she announced the suit in August 2020.
After James filed the suit, then-NRA President Carolyn Meadows told CNN it was a “baseless premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend. It’s a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda.”
James has been highly critical of the NRA since before she was attorney general, calling it a “criminal enterprise” and a “terrorist organization” during her 2018 campaign for the position.
“The NRA continues its defense of a lawsuit by the New York Attorney General, and LaPierre is an individual defendant in that action. It is well-known that the NYAG vowed to pursue the NRA when she was candidate for her office and, upon being elected, filed a lawsuit to dissolve the Association in August 2020. Trial proceedings in that case begin Monday,” the NRA said in its press release announcing LaPierre’s resignation.