����ý

A US judge has dismissed a bankruptcy case involving the National Rifle Association (NRA), leaving it to face a lawsuit that could see the powerful organisation dissolved.

In a written statement, the judge said gun-rights group did not file for bankruptcy in good faith.

Last year, New York's attorney general Letitia James filed a lawsuit accusing the NRA of financial mismanagement.

The NRA described the move as a "baseless, premeditated attack".

It declared bankruptcy in January.

Tuesday's hearing focused on whether the group should be allowed to establish itself legally in Texas instead of New York, where it faces the lawsuit.

Although its headquarters are in Virginia, the NRA was chartered in New York in 1871 as a non-profit organisation and it is incorporated in the state.

"The court believes the NRA's purpose in filing bankruptcy is less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme," Judge Harlin Hale wrote.

"Excluding so many people from the process of deciding to file for bankruptcy, including the vast majority of the board of directors, the chief financial officer, and the general counsel, is nothing less than shocking," the judge added.

Tweeting after the ruling was issued, Ms James wrote: "The NRA does not get to dictate if and where it will answer for its actions, and our case will continue in New York court. No-one is above the law."

Phillip Journey, an NRA board member and Kansas judge, said he was "disappointed" with the judge's ruling.