PERSON: Wayne LaPierre

National Rifle Association

CEO

Wayne Robert LaPierre Jr. (born November 8, 1949) is an American gun rights lobbyist who was the CEO and executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), a position he held between 1991 and 2024.<br> <br> On January 5, 2024, the NRA posted on X that LaPierre would resign from his position on January 31. The announcement came amid allegations of corruption and ahead of a civil trial in Manhattan.<br> <br> Wayne Robert LaPierre, Jr. Was born on November 8, 1949, in Schenectady, New York, the eldest child of Hazel (Gordon) and Wayne Robert LaPierre, Sr. His father was an accountant for the local General Electric plant. The LaPierre family trace their patrilineal heritage to a 17th century French ancestor who emigrated from the Brittany region of France to New France (now Quebec, Canada). His family moved to Roanoke, Virginia, when LaPierre, Jr. Was five years old, and he was raised in the Roman Catholic church. LaPierre first received a student deferment, then a medical deferment (the cause of which is still publicly unknown) and therefore was not drafted into military service during the Vietnam War. After divorcing his first wife, LaPierre married Susan Znidorka in 1998.<br> <br> >> Wikipedia