Misfire

June 1, 2021

National Public Radio's Washington investigative correspondent, Mak spent four years digging through previously unpublicized documents and cultivating dozens of contacts within the National Rifle Association to show how a grassroots club focused on gun safety became a corrupt and powerful lobbyist organization blocking efforts to regulate guns in America. He also gives evidence that its power is beginning to slide.

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November 22, 2021
NPR reporter Mak debuts with a disturbing look into the recent history of the National Rifle Association. He notes that the organization was founded in 1871 to promote marksmanship and supported the regulation of firearms until 1977, when activists staged a revolt at the group’s annual meeting and replaced the existing leadership “with a much more aggressive regime focused on fighting gun control laws.” Soon thereafter, the NRA began working with the advertising firm Ackerman McQueen, a partnership that helped turn the gun lobby into “an identity, a way of living, a secular religion,” but eventually led to internal discord over allegations of corruption by CEO Wayne LaPierre and a 2020 lawsuit filed by New York state attorney general Letitia James seeking to dissolve the organization for misappropriating funds. Mak presents a particularly damaging portrait of LaPierre, “a remarkably weak-willed man” whose tone-deaf responses to school shootings brought intense scrutiny of the NRA. He also reveals that the group provided a lifeline to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape scandal, and that Russian agents have used the NRA to gain access to Republican political circles. The book’s convoluted timeline is somewhat difficult to follow, but Mak’s access to NRA insiders impresses. Readers will be astonished by the levels of corruption and incompetence this sweeping investigation uncovers.

December 1, 2021
Muckraking expos� of the National Rifle Association, revealed as sleazy and insular in its zero-sum political gamesmanship. With measured glee, Mak, Washington investigative reporter for NPR, unearths the inside story of upheavals within the once-secretive gun rights organization, arguing that its corrosive effect on American politics (particularly during the Trump administration) is matched only by internal cynicism, greed, and incompetence. These qualities are embodied by unflattering portraits of Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and his Machiavellian wife, Susan, both of whom "had for years tapped the NRA for personal gain." The author notes that LaPierre's craven responses to spiraling crises, including connections to Russian election interference, led many former allies to cooperate with investigators and his reporting. LaPierre oversaw the organization's movement from a traditional focus on hunting and firearm safety to immersion in the far-right culture wars, abetted by lobbying and legal firms that developed covert, lucrative relationships with LaPierre's circle. This led the organization to go all-in with support for Trump's 2016 campaign; his surprise victory positioned the NRA at the center of power. "Yet in the fall of 2019," writes Mak, "everything was falling apart." The NRA had spent political capital sabotaging bipartisan legislation supporting background checks after the Sandy Hook massacre. Then the story emerged of Maria Butina, a Russian agent who developed cozy relationships with key NRA figures. "The NRA repeatedly opened doors for Butina," writes the author. By the time a New Yorker article "blew the lid off the corruption inside the gun organization," the NRA was in open conflict, with multiple lawsuits going back and forth and LaPierre's control threatened. Mak captures the shrill absurdity of this soap opera, managing a colorful rogues' gallery, including the since-convicted Butina, Oliver North, and various wealthy, unsavory insiders competing for influence over the "remarkably weak-willed" LaPierre. Valuable documentation of the malfeasance underlying the NRA's outsized influence on American life.

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