NRA honcho so traumatized by Parkland massacre, he went cruising | Fred Grimm

In the aftermath of the Parkland horrors, Wayne LaPierre — so very beset with trauma — could only find refuge at sea, “the one place that I hope I could feel safe.”

Actual survivors of the 2018 shooting that left 17 dead and 17 injured might not appreciate the rather precious strain of PTSD suffered by the NRA’s head honcho. And more than a few angry Americans made the connection between the gun lobby’s ruthless support for unfettered civilian access to military-style assault weapons and mass murders committed by civilians wielding military-style assault weapons. They blamed LaPierre.

“I was under all kinds of threats. I did not feel safe anywhere with myself or my family,” LaPierre explained in a deposition filed this month in conjunction with the NRA’s bankruptcy proceedings.

LaPierre attested that he faced similar antipathy after another gunman with an assault rifle murdered 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. LaPierre used his daunting political influence to derail gun control legislation, and when congressional inaction provoked national outrage, LaPierre set sail.

LaPierre and his family, like war refugees if war refugees dressed in resort wear, cruised the Caribbean aboard the 104-foot luxury yacht Illusions. In case of an attack by bloodthirsty pirates from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense or the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, he could escape on one of the Illusions’ Wave Runners or its speedy 16-foot jet boat. Or LaPierre could leap the gunwale and slither down an inflatable sliding board. It may look like fun, but it’s all about security.

A major NRA contractor had lent the Illusions to Wayne (at no cost, which he forgot to report on the NRA’s conflict-of-interest submissions). “They simply let me use it as a security retreat because they knew the threat that I was under,” he explained.

Strange that a leader of the NRA, bastion of America’s gun-slinger ethos, would admit to such shameless wimpiness, but apparently, only the Illusions could lend LaPierre an illusion of security. “This was the one place that I hope I could feel safe, where I remember getting there going, ‘Thank God I’m safe, nobody can get me here.’ And that’s how it happened. That’s why I used it.”

Wayne didn’t mention it in his deposition, but his floating sanctuary came with a hydraulic swim platform, a hot tub on the aft deck and three crew members, including a chef.

Occasionally, perhaps to disguise his whereabouts from gun-control buccaneers, LaPierre and his entourage would borrow the contractor’s other yacht, the even grander 145-foot Grand Illusion. (A lawyer categorized the boats as “the two illusions, grand and regular.”) According to YachtCharterFleet.com, the Grand Illusion can be chartered for $171,000 a week, plus expenses. Of course, Wayne paid nothing. This was no pleasure cruise.

He was questioned in court last week about the NRA’s peculiar bankruptcy declaration, ordered by LaPierre last year (without bothering to inform the gun lobby’s general counsel, chief financial officer or board of directors) after the New York Attorney General had sued to dissolve the nonprofit because of gross and illegal misuse of donor money. LaPierre had diverted millions to pay for luxury vacations, Christmas gifts, personal trips on private jets, designer clothing and traveling hair stylists who kept he and his wife spiffy on their international jaunts. Asked in federal court last week why NRA vendors paid for his big game hunting trips to Africa, LaPierre responded, “That’s all part of work.”

A federal judge will decide whether the NRA can declare bankruptcy, escape culpability for violations of New York nonprofit law and reorganize in Texas. First, LaPierre, 71, who makes more than a million bucks a year, must explain how a nonprofit that wheedles $100 million annually from donors has gone $64 million into the red.

LaPierre may be a wanton, prodigal waster of NRA funds, but between his junkets, he still cowed Congress into killing gun control measures supported by 70% of Americans. Mass murders be damned.

And sure, he may be blamed for the murder of innocents, but who cares? He can always weigh anchor in the Caribbean.

After gun tragedies, LaPierre rejects calls for stricter firearm regulations with his famous nonsense motto: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Last week, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, tweeted a revision that should be helpful the next time LaPierre sets sail: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good friend with a yacht.”

Fred Grimm, a longtime resident of Fort Lauderdale, has worked as a journalist in South Florida since 1976. Reach him by email at leogrimm@gmail.com or on Twitter: @grimm_fred.