Nra’s Red Ink Is Causing ‘Great Alarm’

The leaders who took over the National Rifle Association four years ago point with pride to their success in boosting the group’s membership and intensifying their lobbying against gun control laws.

But, at the same time, these leaders have allowed the once financially strong organization to deteriorate into a deficit-plagued operation with bookkeeping practices so sloppy that even some of its most stalwart members have grown alarmed.

“The disintegration of the assets of the NRA under current spending policies has eroded our future viability,” Max W. Goodwin, chairman of the group’s finance committee, wrote in a confidential letter last year to the organization’s president.

The letter and other documents were provided to The New York Times by members concerned about the group’s finances.

Goodwin warned in the letter that the situation is “cause for great alarm.” Because of the NRA’s weakening finances, he said, “the management, the board of directors and the National Rifle Association itself all may fail.”

A spokesman for the NRA, Bill Powers, said that both the group’s president, Thomas Washington, and its executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, were unreachable for comment. Powers said he does not have the authority to answer a list of questions about the group’s finances.