Controversial Actions and Statements:
Richard Pearson
Richard Pearson (Nominating Committee Member)
Executive Director of Illinois State Rifle Association
Richard Pearson received a B.S. in Education in 1966 and an M.S. in Education in 1973 from Illinois State University. He worked as a social studies and geography teacher in various middle and high schools around Illinois from 1966 until 2001. From 1994 until 2004, Pearson has held various positions within the Illinois State Rifle Association, including membership chairman, lobbyist, president and executive director. From 1988 until 1997, Pearson acted as a rifle instructor at the NRA Training Counselors program. He is also a member of the NRA Nominating Committee.
Richard Pearson (Nominating Committee Member)
In a December 17, 2023 interview with the Chicago-Sun Times, Pearson spoke about the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 first-graders and six adults were killed. Pearson stated, “The problem we have is a gun-free zone. We have a gun-free zone around a school. Every crazy person knows that. And so, the gun-free zone is like a magnet for the lunatics. He or she knows there won’t be any resistance there … Had there been a teacher who was armed, this wouldn’t have happened.” Despite Pearson’s claim, one study found that only one-third of mass shootings (in which four or more innocents are killed) occurring between January 2009 and January 2013 occurred in “gun-free zones.”
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