NRA board re-elects CEO Wayne LaPierre, signaling no change in direction

The National Rifle Association’s board of directors voted Monday to re-elect longtime CEO Wayne LaPierre, signaling that the gun rights group isn’t changing direction despite a rise in mass shootings and its own internal turmoil.

LaPierre has been in charge of the NRA’s day-to-day operations since 1991 and has shaped its no-compromise approach to lobbying against gun control, even after New York’s attorney general accused him of using the group as his “personal piggy bank.”

The NRA said in a statement that the vote was “almost unanimous,” as a rival candidate, former Republican congressman Allen West, received support from only one board member.

The vote occurred at the end of the NRA’s annual meeting in Houston, 300 miles east of Uvalde, where last week an 18-year-old gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

The Uvalde rampage has sparked renewed calls for gun control measures and, on Monday, President Joe Biden said a new ban on assault-style weapons might reduce “mass murders.”

The NRA has long opposed most restrictions on buying firearms, and LaPierre said in a statement Monday that he supported improved mental health services and ways to “make our schools more safe and secure,” which he did not specify.

Active shooter incidents last year surged by more than 50 percent from 2020 and nearly 97 percent from 2017, the FBI said last week.