After NRA Rebuke, Doctors Speak Louder On Gun Violence

Medical societies are calling for gun-control measures and other solutions to what they see as a public-health crisis. After NRA Rebuke, Doctors Speak Louder On Gun Violence

U.S. doctors and medical societies are increasingly speaking out against firearm violence, calling for gun-control measures and other solutions to what they see as a public-health crisis that shows no signs of ebbing.

Their outspokenness picked up in recent days, after the National Rifle Association said in a tweet on Nov. 7: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.”

The NRA, which has fought efforts to restrict access to guns, was criticizing an updated position paper that the American College of Physicians had published calling for various ways to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a threat to others or to themselves. The position paper was published by the physicians group’s journal, the Annals of Internal Medicine, in late October, just days after a gunman killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue. The group said the paper had been in the works before the incident.

In the paper, the physicians group, a society of internal-medicine doctors with about 154,000 members, said it supports laws that bar domestic-violence offenders from buying guns, and opposes laws that force states to honor concealed-carry permits issued in other states.

The NRA said in its tweet that the medical journal was “pushing for gun control.”

The NRA tweet prompted many doctors and nurses to tweet in response with the hashtag #ThisIsMyLane, saying their efforts to save the lives of gunshot victims give them the right to call for solutions. Some of the tweets included graphic pictures of doctors and nurses treating victims.

Stephanie Bonne, a trauma surgeon at University Hospital in Newark, N.J., on Saturday tweeted a photo of the floor of an operating room covered with blood, and the legs of colleagues standing next to an operating table. “She didn’t make it,” Dr. Bonne wrote of a woman who died from a gunshot.

Dr. Bonne said in an interview she snapped the picture earlier this year, but couldn’t release more details about the victim because of medical-privacy laws. She said she took the picture because “I knew I was going to be going home exhausted and defeated” and she wanted to show her husband what she had been through.

Dr. Bonne, who is also a professor of surgery at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said the NRA’s tweet was a “gut punch” to doctors.

“We have an intimacy with our patients that nobody else has,” she said. “We open them up. We put our hands inside their body. And to have somebody say to you ‘You don’t belong here, this isn’t your lane’ is really condescending and really inappropriate. It’s time to post the pictures. Let’s show people what it looks like to work in a trauma center.”

Dr. Bonne said her trauma center treats about 500 to 600 patients with gunshot wounds a year. She favors public-health strategies to reduce gun violence, such as educating people about safe storage of guns, while still being respectful of gun owners’ constitutional rights.

The American College of Physicians has expressed concern about gun violence in the past, but it has become more vocal in recent years because of the frequency of mass shootings, said Dr. Ana Maria Lopez, the group’s president.

“Our job is to make people healthy and our job is to save lives. So it’s very much our lane,” Dr. Lopez said. “It’s been heartening to see so many physicians post their experiences” on social media in response to the NRA tweet.

Some doctors say it isn’t the profession’s role to promote measures that limit access to guns. Dr. Arthur Z. Przebinda, a diagnostic imaging specialist in California and project director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, says physicians “would be in their lane if they pursued better surgical techniques, better postoperative treatments,” but not in calling for gun restrictions. His group is a project of the Second Amendment Foundation, which defends gun rights.

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said firearm homicide rates in 2015 and 2016 rose back to levels seen during 2006 and 2007. Firearm suicide rates continued to increase, a trend since the economic downturn of 2007 and 2008. Overall, there were 27,392 firearm homicides and 44,950 firearm suicides in 2015 and 2016, the CDC said.

The American Medical Association, which has about 243,000 members, in 2016 declared gun violence a national public-health crisis. The group has supported several gun-control measures including expanding background checks to all firearm purchasers, and requiring safety instruction and registration for all firearms. AMA also supports greater federal funding of research on firearm violence, which has been cut over the past two decades.

This week, AMA delegates are considering a resolution to support the ban of 3-D printed guns that can’t be detected by ordinary airport screening machines.

The AMA previously joined a successful court effort to overturn a 2011 Florida law that forbade doctors from asking patients about gun ownership.

“We think taking this out of the arena of politics and putting it into the arena of public health is a way for our country to come forward and overcome the political roadblocks that have been there for many years,” Dr. Barbara L. McAneny, president of the AMA, said in an interview.

Updated: 4-26-2019

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Says He Is Being Extorted, Pressured to Resign

Group’s longtime leader says Oliver North, president of the NRA, wants him out.

Longtime National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre has told the group’s board he is being extorted and pressured to resign by the organization’s president, Oliver North, over allegations of financial improprieties, in a battle stirring up one of the nation’s most powerful nonprofit political groups.

In a letter sent to NRA board members late Thursday afternoon, Mr. LaPierre, the group’s CEO and executive vice president, said he refused the demand. Instead he called on board members to “see this for what it is: a threat meant to intimidate and divide us.”

Mr. North sent his own letter to the board late Thursday evening, in which he said his actions were for the good of the NRA and that he was forming a crisis committee to examine financial matters inside the organization, according to people familiar with its contents.

Mr. North previously had sent a longer letter to the board’s executive committee detailing new allegations of financial improprieties involving more than $200,000 of wardrobe purchases by Mr. LaPierre that were charged to a vendor, according to the people. One of those people described Mr. LaPierre’s letter as an “angry reaction” to Mr. North’s longer letter.

The behind-the-scenes brawl is taking place amid the gun-rights group’s big annual meeting, at which President Trump spoke Friday.

Insiders say matters will come to a head by Monday, when the NRA’s full 76-member board is set to meet.

The fight stems in part from a dispute between the NRA and its longtime advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen Inc., which resulted in a lawsuit filed by the NRA earlier this month. In the suit, the group claimed Ackerman McQueen had refused to provide records justifying its billings. Ackerman McQueen has called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “inaccurate.”

One of the NRA’s claims was that for months it had been stymied in attempts to get details of the ad firm’s contract with Mr. North, a former Marine Corps officer and Iran-Contra figure who hosts a documentary program on NRATV produced by Ackerman McQueen.

According to Mr. LaPierre’s letter to board members, which has been reviewed, Mr. North called an NRA senior staffer Wednesday to convey a message to the NRA chief. In the call, according to the letter, Mr. North said that unless Mr. LaPierre resigned, Ackerman McQueen was prepared to send a letter to the NRA board that would be “bad for me, two other members of my executive team and the Association.”

The letter, Mr. LaPierre wrote the board, “would contain a devastating account of our financial status, sexual harassment charges against a staff member, accusations of wardrobe expenses and excessive staff travel expenses.”

Mr. LaPierre added that after the call “others informed me that I needed to withdraw the NRA lawsuit against [Ackerman McQueen] or be smeared.”

A spokesman for Ackerman McQueen said it would have no comment.

William A. Brewer III, an outside attorney for the NRA, said, “many of the issues raised by Col. North have been the subject of review and investigation by the NRA since early last year. In our view, the items involving Mr. LaPierre may reflect a misinformed view of his and the NRA’s commitment to good governance.”

As for the wardrobe costs, NRA second Vice President Carolyn Meadows said the expenses dated back 15 years and “a wardrobe allowance is not that extraordinary” for the NRA chief, who has “participated in literally thousands of speeches and hundreds of television appearances during that time.”

The letter also claims that Mr. North told the NRA staffer the letter wouldn’t be sent if Mr. LaPierre promptly resigned. If Mr. LaPierre supported Mr. North’s continued tenure as NRA president, the letter claimed, Mr. North stated he could negotiate an “excellent retirement” package for the NRA chief.

Mr. LaPierre wrote that the threat was couched, “in the parlance of extortionists, as an offer I couldn’t refuse. I refused it.”

In the letter, Mr. LaPierre said Mr. North was paid “millions of dollars annually” by Ackerman McQueen, for a dozen episodes of his series, “Oliver North’s American Heroes.” But only three episodes have been delivered thus far, Mr. LaPierre wrote, and the NRA has demanded to know what it is paying for “in light of these production shortfalls.”

Ackerman McQueen “appears to have responded indirectly by trying to oust me,” Mr. LaPierre wrote.

The dispute pits two high-profile conservative figures against each other. Mr. LaPierre has headed the NRA for close to 30 years. During his tenure, the group shifted from being a grass-roots organization to a nationally powerful advocacy organization with strong political sway when it comes to its core gun-rights message.

Mr. North is a conservative folk hero from his tenure in the 1980s on the National Security Council and his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. He became NRA president a year ago as the group searched for a higher-profile figure as its finances sagged after Mr. Trump’s election eased concerns about more gun regulations under another Democratic administration.

The NRA president must stand for reelection every year, but in recent years most presidents have served for two years. Mr. North’s first term is scheduled to end Monday.

Updated: 4-28-2019

New York Attorney General Probes NRA As Oliver North Exits As President

The probe is looking into financial and disclosure problems at the gun-rights group.

The New York attorney general’s office is investigating potential financial and disclosure problems at the National Rifle Association, amid boardroom turmoil at the group that led Saturday to the departure of NRA President Oliver North after a bruising internal political battle.

The probe is looking into alleged financial misconduct of the kind that Mr. North has raised in the internal battles. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Letitia James confirmed the probe and said subpoenas have been issued, but had no further comment.

Mr. North, in a letter read to NRA members Saturday morning at the group’s annual meeting in Indianapolis, said he had hoped to be renominated for a second one-year term as president, but “I am now informed that will not happen.”

The departure of Mr. North, a conservative folk hero from his days as an Iran-Contra figure, comes after NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre sent a letter to the NRA board accusing Mr. North of trying to extort him and force him out over allegations of financial improprieties.

Mr. North previously told the executive committee of the NRA’s board about new allegations involving Mr. LaPierre personally, including a claim that the NRA chief had charged more than $200,000 of wardrobe expenses to an NRA vendor.

In his letter, Mr. North referred to those allegations and recent media articles about NRA insiders profiting from the group, saying “there is a clear crisis that needs to be dealt with quickly and responsibly.” He also said that, if true, the allegations could threaten the NRA’s nonprofit status.

Mr. North earlier in the week also had told the NRA board’s executive committee of other allegations, including hefty travel expenses charged to a vendor and sexual-harassment allegations against a senior NRA official, according to people familiar with the matter.

The New York attorney general’s office, in a document-preservation letter sent to the NRA Friday, said the investigation was focused on “related-party transactions between the NRA and its board members; unauthorized political activity; and potentially false or misleading disclosures in regulatory filings,” according to a person familiar with the matter.

The NRA, as a New York-registered nonprofit, is regulated by that state, which has some of the toughest nonprofit laws in the U.S.

“The NRA will fully cooperate with any inquiry into its finances,” said William A. Brewer III, an outside attorney for the gun-rights group. “The NRA is prepared for this, and has full confidence in its accounting practices and commitment to good governance.”

Mr. Brewer and an NRA board member have said that the NRA board previously investigated many of the issues raised by Mr. North and that Mr. LaPierre’s wardrobe expenses were justified given his public appearances.

The dispute between the NRA’s two top figures in part centered on the NRA’s now-troubled relationship with its longtime advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen Inc. When Mr. North joined the NRA last year, the ad firm hired him to host a documentary program on NRATV, which it produces for the gun-rights group.

The NRA earlier this month sued Ackerman McQueen, claiming it refused to provide records justifying its billings, including records showing the full costs of Mr. North’s program. The ad firm has called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “inaccurate.”

Mr. North in the letter read Saturday morning said he had joined the NRA a year ago after Mr. LaPierre urged him to retire from his job at Fox News— where he was a pundit—“and I accepted a salaried position at Ackerman McQueen.”

Mr. LaPierre, in his letter to the board, claimed that Mr. North had conveyed a threat on behalf of Ackerman McQueen, saying the ad firm was prepared to release new accusations against the NRA chief if he didn’t resign.

Mr. LaPierre also took issue with the costs of Mr. North’s TV contract, saying he was being paid “millions of dollars annually’ by Ackerman McQueen, for a dozen episodes of his documentary series, “Oliver North’s American Heroes.” But only three episodes have been delivered thus far, Mr. LaPierre wrote, and the NRA has demanded to know what it is paying for “in light of these production shortfalls.”

Ackerman McQueen “appears to have responded indirectly by trying to oust me,” Mr. LaPierre wrote.

Ackerman McQueen officials previously declined to comment on Mr. LaPierre’s letter.

Mr. North said in the letter read to members that he had established a crisis committee of the NRA’s board to deal with the financial-mismanagement allegations. It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen to that committee, or whether the leadership crisis at the NRA was over.

The organization’s full 76-member board is scheduled to meet Monday.

Ms. James, a Democrat who took office in January as New York attorney general, had vowed during last year’s election campaign to investigate the nonprofit status of the NRA, which she called a “criminal enterprise.”

NRA officials have been aware of the potential for Ms. James to probe the group, and have been trying to shore up internal governance practices.

News of the attorney general’s investigation was reported earlier by the New York Times.

Updated 4-29-2019

Trump Says NRA Is ‘Under Siege’ by New York State

N.Y. attorney general has opened a probe into the gun-rights group over potential financial and disclosure problems.

President Trump on Monday said the National Rifle Association was “under siege” by the New York attorney general, which is investigating potential financial and disclosure problems at the organization amid internal turmoil in its top ranks.

In a tweet Monday, Mr. Trump accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of “illegally using the state’s legal apparatus to take down and destroy this very important organization, & others.” He called for the NRA to “get its act together quickly, stop the internal fighting, & get back to GREATNESS – FAST!”

A spokeswoman for the New York attorney general’s office on Saturday confirmed the investigation and said it had issued subpoenas. The office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

NRA President Oliver North left the organization on Saturday after NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre sent a letter to the group’s board accusing Mr. North of trying to extort him and force him out over allegations of financial improprieties.

In a letter to NRA members Saturday, Mr. North referred to those allegations and recent media articles about NRA insiders profiting from the group, saying “there is a clear crisis that needs to be dealt with quickly and responsibly.” He also said that, if true, the allegations could threaten the NRA’s nonprofit status.

Mr. Trump spoke at the NRA convention in Indianapolis on Friday, where he called Mr. North a “great guy” and announced he would withdraw the U.S. as a signatory to a global arms treaty that seeks to regulate the international sale of conventional weapons.

“I didn’t tell [NRA official] Chris [Cox] and Wayne and Oliver; I didn’t even tell them about it,” Mr. Trump told the audience as he announced the plan to withdraw.

The New York attorney general’s office has also probed entities close to the president, including filing a lawsuit against Mr. Trump’s charitable foundation, which is dissolving under a judge’s supervision amid allegations the charity misused funds to further its namesake’s interests. Ms. James in March proposed a bill to close a “double-jeopardy loophole” for associates of the president that would allow her office to file state charges against them even if they receive a federal pardon.

Updated: 5-12-2019

Leaked Letters Reveal Details of NRA Chief’s Alleged Spending

Wayne LaPierre expensed $39,000 in clothes in one day, $18,300 for car and driver, ad agency says; NRA says board has ‘full confidence’ in him.

National Rifle Association Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre billed the group’s ad agency $39,000 for one day of shopping at a Beverly Hills clothing boutique, $18,300 for a car and driver in Europe and had the agency cover $13,800 in rent for a summer intern, according to newly revealed NRA internal documents.

The documents, posted anonymously on the internet, provide new details of the clothing, travel and other expenses totaling more than $542,000 that Ackerman McQueen Inc. alleges Mr. LaPierre billed to it.

The travel expenses allegedly include more than $200,000 in “Air Transportation” costs during a one-month period in late 2012 and early 2013, in part related to a two-week trip over Christmas to the Bahamas by Mr. LaPierre.

The additional details behind the ad agency’s claims comes as Mr. LaPierre faces internal scrutiny at the NRA over his expenses amid an extraordinary falling-out between the NRA and Ackerman McQueen.

The NRA released a statement from Carolyn Meadows, its new president, who said the “entire board is fully aware of these issues. We have full confidence in Wayne LaPierre.” She added that “it is troubling and pathetic that some people would resort to leaking information to advance their agendas.”

Mr. LaPierre didn’t respond to a request for comment sent through the NRA.

The LaPierre expense documents posted on the internet appeared to be genuine, a person familiar with the originals told journalists.

The allegations come as the nonprofit gun-rights group is grappling with a new investigation into its financial dealings with insiders and other matters by the New York attorney general.

“It’s time for a change in leadership” at the NRA, said Shawn Herrin, an NRA member who runs a gun-oriented podcast company and aired some of the allegations about Mr. LaPierre’s spending last week.

The documents consist of letters and attachments sent last month to the NRA’s board by the organization’s then-President Oliver North. Mr. North wrote that the allegations “suggest financial impropriety” and he was forming a crisis management committee to examine those and other matters.

Mr. North was forced out after Mr. LaPierre accused him of trying to use the allegations to extort him into resigning. Those defending Mr. North have said he was doing his fiduciary duty as an officer of a nonprofit. Mr. North hasn’t commented.

An NRA attorney, William A. Brewer III, previously has said the vast majority of Mr. LaPierre’s travel expenses charged to the ad firm were for “donor outreach, fundraising and stakeholder engagement” and were being reviewed by the board. The NRA also has said Mr. LaPierre’s clothing expenses were justified due to his many public appearances.

Attached to Mr. North’s correspondence were two letters dated April 22 to Mr. LaPierre from Ackerman McQueen, the NRA’s longtime ad agency. Despite a decadeslong relationship, the NRA sued Ackerman last month, accusing it of failing to justify its billing.

As previously reported on the Ackerman McQueen letters and their allegations about Mr. LaPierre’s clothing and travel expenses, but the documents provide fresh details.

In the letters, Ackerman McQueen wrote Mr. LaPierre that it couldn’t provide detail on clothing and travel expenses it incurred for the NRA chief without more information from him.

“We need to address your wardrobe you required us to provide, specifically purchases at the Zegna store in Beverly Hills, CA,” one letter from Ackerman said. It attached a list of purchases between 2004 and 2017 that totaled $274,695.03. On two dates, Mr. LaPierre’s purchases exceeded $39,000.

The other letter asked Mr. LaPierre for detailed records backing up $267,460.53 of travel and rent expenses that Mr. LaPierre billed to Ackerman, which said it in turn billed to the NRA.

They included a trip to Italy and Budapest in 2014, where the listed expenses included $6,500 for lodging at the Four Seasons hotel; $2,400 for a stay at the luxury Castadiva Resort on Italy’s Lake Como; $17,550 for “Air Charter” between Budapest and the Italian city of Brescia; and nearly $18,300 for a car and driver in both countries.

There was also a charge of $1,096 for “Frankfurt Airport Assistance.”

The letter also listed air transportation charges of almost $40,000 from Washington to the Bahamas on Dec. 17, 2012, and $29,000 from the Bahamas to Dallas on Jan. 3, 2013.

As for the summer intern, Ackerman wrote that Mr. LaPierre “required we rent” her an apartment and requested that Mr. LaPierre provide details about his business relationship to the young woman.

Nonprofits are supposed to be run in the best interests of the organization, not for the benefit of board members or executives, legal experts said. Under New York’s nonprofit law, among the toughest in the U.S., the attorney general could seek to remove directors or officers, and claw back as much as double any improperly obtained benefit.

Updated: 5-29-2019

NRA Ad Firm Seeks To End Contract With Gun Group

Ackerman McQueen wants to quit nearly 40-year relationship amid the partners’ legal dispute.

Advertising firm Ackerman McQueen Inc. said it was moving to terminate its nearly 40-year relationship with the National Rifle Association, the latest salvo in a dispute that has embroiled the NRA in controversy in recent months.

Oklahoma City-based Ackerman McQueen has been the NRA’s ad agency since the 1980s and has been credited with helping to transform the gun-rights group from a grass-roots operation to a powerful national advocacy group. But the two organizations have had a falling out in recent months involving litigation and dueling claims that each has leaked confidential information about their relationship to the media.

The NRA in a lawsuit filed last week accused Ackerman of being behind what it called a failed coup attempt at its recent annual meeting, aimed at ousting NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre. Ackerman countersued, claiming the NRA was looking for pretexts to cancel its contract and seeking as much as $100 million in damages.

In the announcement Wednesday, Ackerman said it had formally provided a notice to terminate its contract with the NRA, claiming the agreement already had been “constructively terminated” by the NRA’s own “inexplicable actions.”

The NRA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ad firm said it had implored all parties to stay true to the NRA’s membership, but instead was “attacked in frivolous lawsuits and defamed with made-up stories” peddled to the news media.

The dispute traces to a drive by the NRA to shore up its internal governance practices. The gun-rights group has said it demanded that all vendors submit detailed records to back up invoices to the NRA, and the only vendor that didn’t comply was Ackerman. The NRA paid the ad firm more than $40 million in 2017, the most recent year publicly available.

Ackerman has said it has complied with all authorized demands for records. It also sent several letters to NRA officials, saying it was unable to comply with demands for records related to certain expenses it incurred on behalf of top NRA officials without additional detail from the NRA itself.

Among the expenses was more than $500,000 the ad firm said it allegedly incurred for clothing and travel expenses for Mr. LaPierre, which included suits from a Beverly Hills, Calif., boutique and travel to locales such as Italy and the Bahamas. The NRA has said the expenses were justified, but the letters leaked out after they played a role in an internal NRA board drama that led to the departure of then-NRA President Oliver North.

Ackerman produces the gun-rights group’s NRATV, a streaming venture that includes live video programming. It isn’t clear what will happen to NRATV once the ad agency no longer works for the NRA. After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors, After NRA Rebuke, Doctors

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