In the aftermath of the back-to-back massacres in Texas and Ohio, the debate over gun control has returned to the National Rifle Association and its immense power to stymie any significant legislation on the issue.

The man largely responsible for the NRA’s uncompromising stance is its decades-long CEO, Wayne LaPierre, who has been engulfed in turmoil and legal issues as he orchestrates the group’s latest effort to push back against gun-control measures.

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the NRA’s finances, and the gun group has ousted top officials and traded lawsuits with the longtime marketing firm credited with helping to shape LaPierre’s and the NRA’s image.

LaPierre’s seven-figure salary, penchant for luxury clothing shopping sprees and reports that he sought to have the NRA buy him a $6 million mansion at an exclusive golf community have drawn considerable scrutiny amid allegations of rampant misspending.

Ardent gun-rights supporters have turned on LaPierre in recent months, taking to Twitter and Facebook with the hashtags #changethenra and #savethe2a. Some are calling for his resignation and questioning how he can turn the tide against the push for more robust gun-control measures after the Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, rampages, given all the scandals.

“They’ve done so much damage to their reputation that the effectiveness of any NRA statements in really swaying opinion has to be considered diminished,” said Rob Pincus, a longtime NRA member and firearms instructor who founded a group calling for LaPierre’s resignation. “Anything that gets said by Wayne LaPierre is going to be followed by ‘amidst turmoil over $300,000 in suits and a $6 million mansion they were going to buy him,’ and all these other allegations that are out there.”

The NRA has abided by its usual reaction after mass shootings — initially saying nothing followed by a muted response. In this case, its lead spokesman said it would not “participate in politicizing these tragedies” and remained committed to the “safe and lawful use of firearms by those exercising their Second Amendment freedoms.”

Behind the scenes, however, there’s evidence of LaPierre’s pull. The Washington Post reported that LaPierre warned President Donald Trump after he expressed support for a background-check bill that such a move would be unpopular among Trump’s supporters, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks. The NRA would neither confirm nor deny the report.

LaPierre, who rarely gives interviews to mainstream media, declined requests to be interviewed and has not spoken publicly since the Texas and Ohio shootings.

To learn how LaPierre accumulated such vast power in both the NRA and American politics while remaining an enigma outside the closed-off world of the gun-rights organization, The Associated Press interviewed dozens of current and former staffers and members who have worked with him.

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LaPierre’s public persona is as the hard-fisted leader of the NRA, the public face of the Second Amendment with his bombastic defense of guns, freedom and country.

Behind the scenes, however, the 69-year-old CEO’s current and former associates see a different man.

The LaPierre they know is an introvert who rarely roams the halls of NRA headquarters to interact with staffers. He’s not even considered a serious “gunner.”

In fact, LaPierre’s early career included working for Democratic lawmakers in Virginia, where he spent most of his childhood. He’s said to have been in line to work for liberal icon and then-Democratic House leader Tip O’Neill until the NRA came calling in 1977.

Pro-gun activist Jeff Knox tells a story about how his father, Neal Knox, a former top lobbyist at the NRA, brought LaPierre to a gun range outside Washington early in his NRA career. LaPierre pulled out a rusty shotgun and the elder Knox, appalled by its condition, removed the dipstick from his Cadillac and used the oil to wipe off the rust.

“Wayne was like ‘What? What’s the big deal?'” said Knox, whose father, now deceased, lost a battle with LaPierre for control of the NRA. LaPierre became the group’s CEO in 1991.

“He’s gotten some nice guns since then but I wouldn’t call him a gun guy,” Knox said. “I think he’s a true believer but I don’t think he quite gets it. … It’s always been business and political to him, where to dad it was almost a religion. It was a calling.”