National Rifle Association (NRA) President Charlton Heston holds up a rifle during his address at the 131st NRA convention at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada, April 27, 2002. (Photo: Candice Towell/Getty Images)
(CNN) — The National Rifle Association of America, the nation’s foremost gun lobby, has filed for voluntary bankruptcy in Texas, the organization said Friday.
The group said it plans to leave New York and reincorporate as a Texas nonprofit, in an move it is calling “Project Freedom.”
The NRA said it’s in its “strongest financial condition in years,” but the restructuring will help to “streamline costs and expenses.”
The Chapter 11 announcement follows leadership shakeups and allegations of financial mismanagement at the NRA in recent years.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit last summer accusing the NRA’s senior leadership of violating laws governing nonprofit groups and using millions of dollars from the organization’s reserves for personal use and tax fraud. James responded to the group’s bankruptcy announcement Friday, saying: “The NRA’s claimed financial status has finally met its moral status: bankrupt.”
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