Tag Archives: NRA

NRA Board Election 2025 Endorsements: Future of NRA is in Members’ Hands

 

NRA Board Election Ballot Vote
NRA Board Election Ballot Vote

Tombstone, Arizona – Ballots for the 2025 NRA Director election are arriving now, with voting open through March. In total, 28 seats are up for election, with about 50 people vying for those seats, including 2 write-in candidates. Those 28 seats represent slightly more than one-third of the 76-member Board, and this election has the potential to give “reformers” on the Board an overwhelming majority going forward.

In years past, I have recommended “Bullet Voting” in NRA elections, but that was when the reformers were an insurgency movement running one or two candidates against an entrenched establishment.

This year is very different as the reformers are the establishment, so this year, I am recommending that every eligible voter cast votes for a full slate of 28 candidates.

The easy, no fuss way to accomplish this is to look for the two-page ad in the middle of the magazine talking about NRA 2.0 Values and just vote for the people listed in that ad, including two write-in candidates to add on the back of the ballot.

Continue reading NRA Board Election 2025 Endorsements: Future of NRA is in Members’ Hands

LaPierre Pays Up $, Lawyer Brewer Resigns, Our Causes Advance : NRA Board After Action Report

Wayne LaPierre has tendered payment of over $4 million to the NRA. The payment covers the total judgment against LaPierre issued in last year’s civil trial, plus interest.

Dallas, Texas, January 12, 2025 – The Winter meeting of the NRA Board of Directors wrapped up just after midnight last night (January 11/12/25) in Dallas, after almost a week of committee meetings and a long, sometimes contentious meeting of the Board.

The big news from the meeting was confirmation that Wayne LaPierre has tendered payment of over $4 million to the NRA. The payment covers the total judgment against LaPierre issued in last year’s civil trial, plus interest.

As I understand it, Mr. LaPierre has filed a notice of appeal on that judgment, so the NRA will need to hold onto the money until that or any other appeals are finally concluded, which could take years. The wheels of justice turn slowly.

Continue reading LaPierre Pays Up $, Lawyer Brewer Resigns, Our Causes Advance : NRA Board After Action Report

NRA Members: Voting Matters ~ Your Votes vs Their Votes

Did you notice the short blurb in your December NRA magazine regarding a vote by the NRA Board of Directors to eliminate the Special Litigation Committee (SLC)?

It was published in the “Official Journal” section toward the back of the various magazines without any fanfare. It simply stated the motion that was voted on and listed the “Yeas and Nays”—the names of those Directors who voted for the proposal and those who voted against it.

This was an important vote that you should take special note of because NRA Board of Director elections are coming and how Directors voted on this matter is very pertinent.

During his time at NRA-ILA and afterward, one of my father, Neal Knox’s, key strategies was to push for votes on pro-rights bills in Congress and state legislatures, even when our side didn’t appear to have the votes to win. I’ve maintained the same advice over the twenty-plus years that I’ve been lobbying and advising state grassroots groups. The objective is not necessarily to win the vote, but to smoke out our opponents. Get them to go on record either supporting or opposing a proposal, then put that record in front of voters come election season.

That’s exactly what this internal BOD vote published in NRA magazines was all about.

Continue reading NRA Members: Voting Matters ~ Your Votes vs Their Votes

Urgent Call to Action for NRA Voting Members ~ Support these NRA Board Candidates

NRA Leadership Board of Directors
File Photo iStock

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 Members Really Think About Their NRA Organization?

NRA Membership iStock-Jorgenmac 467203618
NRA Membership iStock-Jorgenmac 467203618

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?

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

 

Members Contact the NRA Board of Directors
Members Contact the NRA Board of Directors

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

Judicial Verdict in NRA Trial: Accountability, Governance, & Future Implications

 

National Rifle Association NRA
National Rifle Association NRA

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 Full Transcript of the Final Day of the NRA Trial in New York.

Below is a link to the full transcript of the final day of the bench trial in New York in the case of New York v. NRA, which wrapped up on July 29, 2024.

NYvNRA 072924_4PP

The really interesting part begins with the judge’s preliminary decision at the conclusion of the trial, which you’ll find beginning on page 211 of the PDF document.  The closing arguments from NRA and the NY AG are also interesting.  They come right before the decision.  If you find yourself in columns of mumbo-jumbo, you’ve gone too far into the document and gotten into the reference notes at the end.  There’s a lot of those.

Keep in mind that this is an unedited transcript and includes some typos and other mistakes here and there.

Only NY Judge Cohen Can Purge the NRA of its Corrupt Board Members

 

NRA Contractors Money
iStock

The second phase of the NRA’s New York trial is almost over.

The prosecution closed its case on Monday, July 22, with my testimony, and the defense immediately started its case with NRA Treasurer and CFO Sonya Rowling.

The whole thing is supposed to be concluded by Monday, July 29. At that point, the NRA’s future lies in the hands of Judge Joel Cohen.

He could come back with his ruling within a few days of the close of the trial, or he could take months. If Judge Cohen recognizes that “personnel is policy,” and the personnel “leading” the NRA are the same people who for decades failed in their fiduciary duties, allowed the old policies and procedures to be side-stepped, and who have refused to take any responsibility for, or even admit to, their failures, then NRA members win. Continue reading Only NY Judge Cohen Can Purge the NRA of its Corrupt Board Members

National Rifle Association Is Looking For Strong NRA Board Candidates: Can You Step Up?

NRA Leadership Board of Directors
NRA Leadership Board of Directors

Tombstone, Arizona – The process of selecting candidates for the 2025 National Rifle Association Board of Directors election has already begun, and the window is closing fast.

A call for candidates was published in the July issue of NRA magazines. It asked members to submit nomination forms for qualified candidates to be considered by the Nominating Committee. The nomination forms must be received by the Nominating Committee by August 4, 2024.

For years, the Nominating Committee was a closed system with Wayne LaPierre loyalists picking the candidates.

Occasionally, an independent thinker would slip into the mix, but they were rare exceptions and were usually sent packing in short order. The current Nominating Committee appears to be a bit more balanced but still leans toward the Old Guard establishment, meaning getting reform-minded candidates nominated won’t be a cakewalk. Continue reading National Rifle Association Is Looking For Strong NRA Board Candidates: Can You Step Up?