Johnny Morris, the owner of one of the largest retailers of firearms in the US (Bass Pro Shops), is also one of the most powerful members and supporters of the NRA – National Rifle Association. He donated the space and funded the construction of the NRA National Sporting Arms Museum inside his Bass Pro Shops megastore in Springfield, Missouri. It is estimated that the construction of the whole complex cost him more than 300 million dollars. He has also bankrolled some of the NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits and sponsored NASCAR and other car races to promote both Bass Pro Shops and the NRA. His net worth is 8.1 billion dollars and he ranked 92 in the Forbes top 100 richest Americans in 2022.
Morris not only financially supported the NRA and some sporting events but he is also known for donating large sums of money to Donald Trump’s campaigns in 2016 and in 2020. He is one of the 23 billionaires who made six-figure donations to committees supporting the Republican candidate. The NRA also supported the two Trump campaigns.
In December 2021, Johnny Morris visited Jair Bolsonaro, who was at the time President of Brazil, in the president’s office in Brasilia. He gave Bolsonaro a Bass Pro Shops embroidered jacket. Jair Bolsonaro, in return, gave Morris a medal. There is no official record available online nor media coverage about the meeting between Jair Bolsonaro and Johnny Morris. The meeting was announced by Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair’s son, in his social media.
Morris was accompanied by Eduardo Bolsonaro, who had travelled with him to the Amazon rainforest a couple of days before.
Johnny Morris apparently gave Eduardo Bolsonaro a very expensive gift. Eduardo Bolsonaro, his wife Heloisa, and their daughter Georgia were Morris’s guests in a luxury floating hotel called The Rio Negro Queen, owned by Captain Peacock Yachts and Expeditions. The business has a partnership with Morris’s company Bass Pro Shops, as can be observed on the Captain Peacock website. The cost of the premium package is $7,450 per guest. Heloisa Bolsonaro posted some photos of their trip to her Instagram. She also posted a photo of the Bass Pro Shops red cap dedicated to her daughter Georgia by Johnny Morris.
Eduardo Bolsonaro posted a video in which he talked with Johnny Morris. They only talked about fishing and tourism in the Amazon rainforest. Obviously, they wouldn’t be openly talking about the previous meetings that the Bolsonaro family had with the NRA. They wouldn’t be talking about how Jair Bolsonaro’s government dismantled the Disarmament Statute to facilitate the exportation of firearms to Brazil. They wouldn’t be talking about how successfully Eduardo Bolsonaro managed to create Pro-Armas, the Brazilian version of the NRA.
