Tombstone, Arizona – Time has almost run out for nominating new candidates for election to the NRA Board of Directors.

If you are a Life Member of the NRA, or an Annual Member with five or more years of uninterrupted membership, you are a Voting Member of the Association and eligible to help nominate candidates for the NRA Board of Directors.

Director candidates can be nominated in two ways. They can be nominated by the Nominating Committee of the Board, or they can be nominated by petition of the members.

The Nominating Committee (NC) met in early September and nominated 39 candidates, but two of those candidates have since declined, leaving 37 candidates nominated by the NC. Of the candidates nominated by the NC, only 4 were new candidates expressly endorsed by the leaders of the reform movement within the Board, with an additional 4 of the endorsed incumbents being nominated, so that’s eight nominally “reform” candidates out of 39. Continue reading Urgent Call to Action for NRA Voting Members ~ Support these NRA Board Candidates →

What do NRA members, former NRA members, and the general shooting public think about the NRA today?

That’s a question that I and many others have long believed we could reasonably answer, but are my beliefs accurate and justified? Do these folks really think and believe as I think they do, or am I just relying on an echo chamber effect?

Looking at the presidential race and the wide divisions between Republicans and Democrats, “progressives” and “conservatives,” I recognize that we all tend to live in an information bubble of our own making. As a lifelong “conservative,” I tend to gravitate toward Ben Shapiro, Bill Whittle, my community on X, and my favorite blogs and websites for political news and analysis, while my “liberal” friends tend to gravitate to MSNBC, “The View,” their community on X, and their favorite blogs and websites for theirs.

We all like to have our biases confirmed, our ideas echoed, and our beliefs supported. This is true for firearms information and firearms-related politics as well.

So how do I know whether I’ve trapped myself in a self-affirming echo chamber of my own regarding people’s thoughts and beliefs regarding the NRA?

Continue reading What Do Members Really Think About Their NRA Organization? →

Reformers on the NRA Board of Directors are now between a rock and a hard place.

The rock is NRA members demanding sweeping changes before they will consider rejoining or contributing to the Association.  The hard place is to keep the Association solvent long enough to get those demanded changes done.

We’ve been through a scandal, a failed bankruptcy attempt, a jury trial on corruption and fiduciary failings, and a bench trial on remediating those fiduciary failings.  We’ve gotten rid of problem vendors, banned Wayne LaPierre for ten years, and parted ways with the other executives who abused their positions for personal gain and the gain of their cronies. We’ve gotten a court order requiring LaPierre and former Treasurer Woody Phillips to repay millions of dollars in excess compensation, a fraction of the billions they have cost our fight.  Most importantly, we’ve made sweeping changes to our financial control systems, contracting practices, and compliance processes, all to ensure that nothing like what was done before can be done in the future.

For years, we’ve all heard, “I won’t give one more dime to the NRA until Wayne LaPierre is gone.”

Continue reading NRA at the Crossroads: Your Voice is Crucial, NRA Board Needs to Hear From You →

The trial in New York, pitting the New York Attorney General against the National Rifle Association, is over, and the judge has issued a partial decision.

At the end of that decision, Judge Joel Cohen asked that the NRA and the AG sit down and try to cobble together a plan for remediation of some aspects of the Association’s governance going forward.  If they can’t agree on a workable plan, the judge will evaluate their various suggestions and devise a plan of his own.  In the end, agreed-to plan or not, the final decision rests with the judge, and he expressed his intention to issue that decision within a couple of weeks.

Rather than try to offer a synopsis of the judge’s ruling, with my own editorial spin and possible errors, I’ve decided to provide you with the whole thing as accurately as possible.  The only editorializing I will do is to “bold” highlight and bring attention to the judge’s words or sections I see as particularly important. As you read this, again, note that any added emphasis (BOLDING) is my doing, not the judge’s. Continue reading Judicial Verdict in NRA Trial: Accountability, Governance, & Future Implications →

The NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Dallas were held between May 15 and May 20, 2024, including meetings of various committees of the Board of Directors throughout the period, the Exhibit Hall with various seminars and presentations on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the Annual Meeting of Members on Saturday, and a meeting of the NRA Board of Directors on Monday.

The big news came from the NRA Board of Directors meeting on Monday, May 20, in which the leadership of the NRA changed hands.

With the exception of the presidency, reform candidates ran the table resulting in a new direction for the 153-year-old Association. First Vice-President Bob Barr beat out a strong challenge from Owen “Buz” Mills, a retired businessman and the owner of Gunsite Academy. The 1st VP chair was filled by reform candidate Bill Bachenberg. The 2nd VP chair went to reform candidate Mark Vaughan, and in the most surprising election, the position of Interim Executive Vice President and CEO went to reform candidate Doug Hamlin over popular firearm designer and manufacturer Ronnie Barrett. Continue reading A New Day Dawns at the NRA, Are Reform Efforts Paying Dividends? →