According to a new Bangor Daily News report, a former NRA member named Travis McEwen has brought a class action lawsuit against the NRA and InfoCision, the NRA’s marketing firm, “alleging they for years have used an automatic telephone dialing system to place illegal calls to consumers around the country, including people who’d put their phone numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry.” The lawsuit (which can be read here) was filed in U.S. District court on Tuesday in Portland, ME. 

The report, written by Judy Harrison, tells the full story: 

• Legal stakes: “The lawsuit claims the NRA and InfoCision violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which made it illegal for telemarketers to place automated calls to consumers without their prior express written consent and to call consumers who had put their numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry.”
• McEwen’s allegations: McEwen claims in the complaint that “in late 2018 he began receiving multiple calls from InfoCision Inc., a direct marketing firm, based in Ohio, working on a membership campaign for the NRA. McEvan received the calls even though he’d placed his number on the Do Not Call Registry. For months, he received multiple calls per week, and the calls continued even after he told them he did not want to purchase an NRA membership and did not want them to call him.”McEwen further alleges that “[h]e placed his number of the NRA’s do not call list and the calls stopped for time. But in late 2019, McEwen’s phone began ringing again with the same offer.”
• Additional allegations: According to the Bangor Daily news, “People across the country allegedly received similar calls” to those experienced by McEwen. 
• Damages sought: According to McEwen’s lawyer, “The lawsuit seeks to stop the NRA’s unlawful practice of making unsolicited telemarketing calls with an automatic telephone dialing system without consumers’ consent, stop the NRA’s unlawful practice of calling consumers who are on the National Do Not Call Registry and obtain damages for consumers who experienced these unwelcome calls.”

This lawsuit comes at a time when the NRA is already mired in legal and financial turmoil.