Inside the NRA

A Tell-All Account of Corruption, Greed, and Paranoia Within the Most Powerful Political Group in America

By: Joshua L. Powell

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

A shocking exposé of rampant, decades-long incompetence at the National Rifle Association, as told by a former member of its senior leadership.

Joshua L. Powell is the NRA - a lifelong gun advocate, in 2016, he began his new role as a senior strategist and chief of staff to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.

What Powell uncovered was horrifying: "[T]he waste and dysfunction at the NRA was staggering."

Inside the NRA reveals for the first time the rise and fall of the most powerful political organization in America - how the NRA became feared as the Death Star of Washington lobbies and so militant and extreme as "to create and fuel the toxicity of the gun debate until it became outright explosive".

Inside the NRA explains this intentional toxic messaging was wholly the product of LaPierre's leadership and the extremist branding by his longtime PR puppet master Angus McQueen. In damning detail, Powell exposes the NRA's plan to "pour gasoline" on the fire in the fight against gun control, to sow discord to fill its coffers, and to secure the presidency for Donald J. Trump.

©2020 Joshua L. Powell (P)2020 Twelve

Very Timely

I am a member and it basically validated most of my my suspensions. Good book overall.

Great view of NRA incompetence

This together with Ryan Busse's Gunfight are good at showing the ways in which the NRA went wrong.

Not a Gun Guy

I am not anti gun, I just have zero interest in using or owning one. That said, I learned a lot about what really has been going on inside the NRA. And I learned quite a bit about guns and the people who like them. Most importantly, at least as I heard this audio book, it is as balanced a story about the NRA as you can get from pro-gun folks. Come to it with an open mind and you’ll not be disappointed.

Get Into the Debate

By listening to this book. Even if you only appreciate half of it you’ll understand how much we don’t know. We’ve never really known, until now, not even vaguely, the inner workings of the NRA. Thanks so much Joshua Powell for laying out the details. Gripping.

Wouldn’t recommend

Too much “I always knew…” and “I’m a good guy; I just lost my way”. Hard to believe that he wasn’t ass-deep in the swamp and loving every minute of it; right up to the point when they let him go. I didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know; that the NRA gets the bulk of their $ through fear and paranoia mongering. And the author sounds too much like an overly self-impressed a$$hole for me.

surprise of surprises

I was truly surprised at the gysfunction of the NRA but then who put the fin in dysfunction? Quien sabes?

Lots of food for thought.

As a Life Member of the NRA, a hunter, and competitive shooter I have been growing less and less enthusaisc about the direction the orginazation is going in. The degree of mismanagement and corruption inside the NRA detailed by the author is profoundly dismaying. I met Wayne LaPierre briefly at the National Meeting in Phoenix years ago at the height of his power and success. I found him to be very dismissive of the membership in general and myself in particular. Now that he is gone, I hope the NRA and it's BOD can begin to repair the fiscal and orginizational damage that has occurred on his watch, and emerge stronger than ever.