NRA officer Mark Richardson got in touch with Wolfgang Halbig, who has been known to harass parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims and spout theories about the shooting.

Parkland: A Look Back at the Year That Changed School Safety
Related: Parkland: A Look Back at the Year That Changed School Safety
“Just like [Sandy Hook], there is so much more to this story,” Richardson wrote in an email on Feb. 15, 2018 – one day after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “[The Parkland shooter] was not alone.”

Richardson has worked at the NRA since 2006 as a training instructor and program coordinator.

NRA Instructed Far-Right Group to ‘Shame’ Anti-Gun Activists After Massacres

Al Jazeera secretly recorded meetings between representatives of the NRA and One Nation in Washington, D.C. in September last year, where the NRA officials offered advice on how to manipulate media coverage. The best method to handle media inquiries in the wake of a massacre was to “say nothing,” according to Catherine Mortensen, an NRA media liaison officer, on the video. But if the media inquiries about gun control persist, another NRA comms official, Lars Dalseide, said to “shame them to the whole idea,” adding: “If your policy, isn’t good enough to stand on itself, how dare you use their deaths to push that forward? How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forward your political agenda?”

Will The NRA Shut Down? The Group Says It May Soon "Be Unable To Exist"

The National Rifle Association (NRA) in 2016 was a behemoth financially, donating $54 million in presidential and congressional races. Now, less than two years later, it's arguing economic hardship and even that it may soon "be unable to exist" in a recent court filing. But running out of money is not the reason why the NRA could shut down. That has more to do with a newfound difficulty around obtaining insurance.


Both of the concerns stem from actions that New York state took earlier in 2018, the NRA argues in its court filing. New York Law Journal first reported the suit, which was originally filed in June and argues that New York officials violated the group's constitutional rights with targeted efforts to keep banks and insurers from working with it. The dire language about ceasing to exist came in an amendment to that complaint that was filed in late July, explaining the effect officials' actions allegedly had on the organization.

The NRA says that because of money lost due to New York officials' actions, it may have to cease providing all sorts of benefits to its members including NRATV, print publications, meetings, and educational programs. Even its ability to "hold rallies, conventions and assemblies" is in question, per the filing.