There's Salary And Then There's Compensation

Shannon Watts of Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors is trying to make a big deal out of the salary received by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre. She posted a tweet on Saturday asserting that Wayne made the big bucks while she, in an attempt at gun control sainthood, had zero salary.

My salary is zero dollars; Wayne paid millions: "What #NRA Pays #WayneLapierre To Sell Guns" http://t.co/e5b9K4Lsc9
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) June 8, 2014

She may be correct in her assertion that she receives no salary. That doesn't mean she is not compensated for her efforts to infringe on our Second Amendment rights.There are many ways to be compensated for your work that isn't salary.

For example, if you look at the Form 990 for Mayor Bloomberg's Illegal Mayors for both 2011 and 2012 you won't find any salary payments to then-Executive Director Mark Glaze or a listing of him under their highly compensated employees. However, you will find payments of $210,000 and $220,000 respectively to The Raben Group which was his long-time employer. Mr. Glaze was certainly compensated but it wasn't with "salary" from Bloomberg.

Likewise, I think if you search long enough or when we finally get the 2014 Form 990 for Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors you will find substantial payments to an outside consulting group. Further investigation will probably show some sort of affiliation with Shannon Watts.

Of course, Shannon Watts could be the 21st Century's version of Joan of Arc but for gun control instead of France. She could be doing this all out of altruistic sense of duty. I don't believe that for a minute and I doubt any one reading this would either. She and her husband John may be "one-percenters" but they never have seemed to be the sort to do anything for free.

There is some very valid speculation that one of the reasons that Moms Demand Action merged with MAIG was to avoid having to file a Form 990 for 2013. The merger took place in December 2013 so their finances would be subsumed under that of MAIG. Of course, this assumes that MDA received their 501(c)3 determination letter from the IRS and would be required to file the form.

As I said earlier, there are many ways to be compensated for your efforts monetarily that don't appear as salary. While Shannon Watts may be correct that she doesn't receive a salary (and that is iffy given her track record with the truth), she is getting compensated for her efforts one way or another.