Supporting Operation Airdrop In Post-Helene Relief

A number of firearms and firearms related companies are coming together to support Operation Airdrop in their efforts to bring relief to Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Operation Airdrop is a Texas-based 501(c)3 non-profit that organizes general aviation assets after a natural disaster. Many of the companies involved are located here in North Carolina. They have organized a raffle that will donate 100% of the proceeds to Operation Airdrop.

Tickets are $20 each and give you two entries in the raffle. The grand prize is valued at over $11,000 while the second place prize is valued at over $8,000.

You can get your raffle ticket here.

This effort is being spearheaded by ZRO Delta which is located in Connelly Spring, NC. While I don’t want to get political, ZRO Delta, US Optics, and Unbranded AR are co-owned by Pat Harrigan who is the Republican nominee for Congress in the 10th District of NC. In the interest of full disclosure, I gave a small donation to his campaign back in the Spring.

The raffle closes at midnight on October 16th.

Michigan Goes Full Stasi

What do the former Soviet Union, Mao’s Red China, and the State of Michigan have in common? They all want to use children to inform the state on their parents and elders.

In a bill signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) yesterday, the State of Michigan does just that. Embedded within HB 5503 CR-1, a bill dealing with appropriations for public schools in Michigan, was this gem.

Sec. 97h reads:

Sec. 97h. (1) From the state school aid fund money appropriated in section 11, there is allocated an amount not to exceed $1,000,000.00 for 2024-2025 only to an intermediate district to partner with the department to create or partner with an existing program and support a tip line for students to anonymously report improperly stored firearms that are accessible to a minor.
(2) The department shall develop educational materials related to improperly stored firearms, and how to report improperly stored firearms, and distribute the educational materials to districts and intermediate districts.
(3) Notwithstanding section 17b, the department shall make payments under this section on a schedule
determined by the department.
(4) As used in this section, “improperly stored firearm” means a firearm that is not stored in accordance withthe requirements of section 9 of 1927 PA 372, MCL 28.429.

As the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owner’s notes, everyone supports proper storage of firearms but this is what one might expect to see in a totalitarian police state. Indeed they are correct. Whether it was the Young Pioneers in the USSR and DDR or the Red Guard in Mao’s China, all were urged to report on their parents.

A better solution than going full Stasi might have been to work with the NSSF’s Project Project ChildSafe® which has developed a comprehensive program dealing with firearms safety and which provides locks free of charge. Going further, imagine if that $1 million grant was used to provide tax credits to firearms owners who purchased safes, lockboxes, or other firearm storage devices. Both of these would be real solutions to improperly stored firearms rather than using kids as tools of a totalitarian police state.

H/T Tovis

For North Carolinians From GRNC-PVF

Grass Roots North Carolina-Political Victory Fund reminds all North Carolinians that today is the last day to regularly register to vote in the November General Election. Registration closes at 5pm this afternoon. However, if you miss this deadline, you can still register to vote if you take advantage of early voting up through November 2nd.

Other deadlines:

Oct. 11 (5 PM): Deadline for voter registration or to update registration (e.g. for an address change). Click here for details. To check your voter registration, click here. Note: If you are registered as “unaffiliated,” you may vote in either the Democrat or Republican primary election. [Important note: If you miss this deadline, you can still vote using one stop early voting.]  

Oct. 17: General Election one stop early voting begins. Click here for details. Click here to find your One Stop Early Voting place.

Oct. 29 (5 PM): Last day to submit an absentee ballot request form. Click here for information on voting by mail.

Nov. 2 (3 PM): In-person one stop early voting ends. This is last day you can both register and vote at same time.

Nov. 5 (6:30 AM – 7:30 PM): Election Day: Click here to find your polling place on Election Day. 

Nov. 5 (5 PM): Absentee ballot return deadline.

Reportedly, over 10 million hunters are not registered to vote. Presumably most are gun owners. Even if they aren’t, policies of the Biden-Harris administration have not been friendly to either gun owners or hunters. Whether it is closing land to hunting or banning lead ammunition on certain wildlife refuges, they have not had the interests of hunters at heart. If you are one of these unregistered voters, it is time to get off your ass and register to vote. And then vote like your guns and your hunting rights depend on them because they do.

The GRNC-PVF has also released their recommendations for the 2024 General Election. You can download the whole list here.

I would note that in both my State Senate and State House districts the Republican challengers to the zero-star Democrat incumbents didn’t bother to return GRNC’s survey. How damn stupid can you be not to take advantage of something that differentiates you from your opponent and might give you a point or two more votes. The GOP is not known as the Stupid Party without reason.

Likewise, in two Council of State races, the Republican didn’t bother to return the GRNC survey. In the case of Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey (R-NC), he faces vehemently anti-gun State Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg). I have written about Marcus in the past. She proudly proclaims her membership in Moms Demand Action and has tried to distort the racist history of the origins of the pistol purchase permit. You can imagine what she might do to gun owners if given the power of the Insurance Commissioner’s office.

Missing From Both Final Judgment Proposals

Both the NRA and the New York Attorney General’s Office submitted their proposed terms for the final judgment in People of New York v. National Rifle Association of America et al on October 4th. Having read both proposals, neither propose reforms intended to keep the rank and file NRA member informed.

Item 9 in the NYAG’s proposed final judgment says the NRA will set up a secure online portal that will “enable digital dissemination of Board, committee, and corporate documents to Board members, and shall enable convenient encrypted communications with Board members.”

Likewise, the NRA’s proposal for a final judgment states, “The Secretary’s Office shall use best efforts to implement, by January 2025, a secure portal that will enable digital dissemination of Board, committee, and corporate documents to Board members, and shall enable convenient encrypted communication with Board members.”

Nowhere in either document is any mention of providing information on a timely basis to the members of the NRA. Whether this is an oversight or intentional, I don’t know.

At the very least, here is what I would propose and what should be included in the final judgment. If you have other items that you would suggest be publicly available, make note of it in the comments.

  • Current bylaws must be published on the NRA website and available to all members. Do you know hard it is to get an up-to-date copy of the bylaws otherwise?
  • A minimum 5 years worth of Form 990 and CHAR500 posted on the NRA’s public website. Many other non-profits make these available on their websites.
  • Board meeting agenda and minutes posted on the public website including for past meetings of the board. If small towns can do it, so can the NRA.

If those in charge are so worried about the gun prohibitionists or reporters from The Trace having access to this information, make it so it can be accessed only by NRA members. This is what they do with regard to candidate ratings by the NRA-PVF.

The time for keeping the membership in the dark is over. If the Board and the executives are serious about a NRA 2.0, this is one change they could easily make.

Ryan Cleckner’s Essay In Imprimis

Imprimis is a monthly publication of Hillsdale College that presents digests of speeches given at seminars and other events sponsored by the college. Like Hillsdale College itself, it usually has a conservative or libertarian bent.

A speech given by Ryan Cleckner, an attorney formerly with NSSF, on federal law enforcement agencies was this month’s topic. Entitled, “Our Out-of-Control Federal Law Enforcement Agencies”, it focused primarily on abuses, many deadly, by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

The speech begins with the killing of Bryan Malinowski by the ATF in Little Rock, Arkansas and concludes with a reference to the ATF’s attempt to illegally construct an electronic database of firearms and owners. Interspersed with these are stories about the FBI’s use of dawn raids on a non-violent pro-life activist and Trump confidant Roger Stone among others.

From the speech:

I served in the military as a Special Operations sniper and Sniper Team leader in 1st Ranger Battalion. I could have gone on to become a sharpshooter on a police SWAT team or even joined the FBI or one of the other three-letter federal agencies that were widely considered, in the past, to be the cream of the crop in terms of law enforcement. Sadly, they are no longer thought of in the same way.

The flip side of the increasingly thuggish character of these agencies is their diminished effectiveness in fulfilling their core missions, to the point that the American public cannot help but notice. Consider the recent assassination attempt—very nearly successful—on President Trump. The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI are being anything but transparent about their investigations and seem to be going out of their way to make it as difficult as possible for Congress and the public to learn what happened. But the most obvious fact about it, which cannot be covered up, is that the Secret Service allowed a 20-year-old shooter to access the most ideal location for a sniper, even after he had been spotted acting suspiciously and using a laser rangefinder and had been watched for almost 30 minutes. This alone is enough to know the Secret Service that day was more Keystone Cop than cream of the crop.

This speech by Mr. Cleckner is well worth your time reading as are virtually all of the essays and speeches published in Imprimis. If you want to subscribe to Imprimis, it is free.

Delivered!

My package containing 236 petition sheets with 547 signatures was delivered to the NRA’s Office of the Secretary this morning. It cost me $92.22 but it was worth it.

When dealing with the powers that be, it always pays to have proof!

I know I have more petitions coming in as UPS has notified me of at least two packages that are delayed by the storm. I plan to send those in to Fairfax because why not. They can turn their nose up at them and not count them but they will know that even more voting members are demanding change.

Rocky Marshall Responds To Barr’s Falsehood

Earlier today, NRA President Bob Barr sent an email out to the Board of Directors with “a litigation update.” It details what the Special Litigation Committee agrees with in the NYAG’s proposed judgment and what it disagrees with. Towards the end of the email Barr accuses Director Rocky Marshall of submitting an affidavit ” in support of the NYAG’s demands for additional relief against the NRA.” You can read the whole email here where it has been reposted on Facebook.

Rocky did not take this lying down and has responded at length. He has requested that his response be published in its entirety along with his affidavit and a joint letter submitted by Rocky and Buz Mills to the New York court in August. I am happy to provide Rocky a public forum to set the record straight. As Tom Gresham of Gun Talk Radio has often said, “A lie left unchallenged becomes the truth.”

Here is Rocky’s letter in its entirety:

October 6, 2024
To: Bob Barr
From: Rocky Marshall
CC: NRA Board of Directors and all NRA Members
Not Privileged and Not Confidential – Share with as many NRA members as possible


NRA President Bob Barr:
In your email addressed to the NRA Board of Directors (dated October 6, 2024), includes a retaliation statement towards me directly. Because of this attack, I am compelled to respond to the NRA Board of Directors and also to all NRA members in a public forum.


In your email, you comment that I provided an affidavit “in support of the NYAG’s request for additional relief”. This is untrue, blatantly false, and is a feeble small minded political attack. The affidavit that I signed was not a statement of support but instead was a true account of the resolution to dissolve the Special Litigation Committee (SLC) and the subsequent outcome of the vote (See attached affidavit).


For the record, the NRA Directors who supported Wayne LaPierre and now support maintaining the Brewer law firm into perpetuity, misused the parliamentarian rules and recorded the vote as having not passed with a super majority. As it turns out, according to the New York AG’s charitable division, NY law says a majority of the board governs unless the bylaws says otherwise, NRA’s bylaws adopt Robert’s Rules, but only as to deliberations, not voting, so for voting the NY statute applies and a simple majority is enough. In other words, the majority of the Board voted to end the SLC and by default terminate the employment of the Bill Brewer law firm. I join with the majority of the Board and echo this simple but monumental refrain: “Bill Brewer You’re Fired!”


NRA Members:
President Barr (unfortunately) is a central member of the NRA Directors identified in the NYAG’s statement as: “Many of the same NRA directors who failed in their duty to oversee the NRA during an era of “ill-considered,” “wasteful,” and “disastrous” efforts to “avoid accountability” continue to serve on the Board today. Id. at 2253:9-13.” President Barr and the members of the SLC continue to take action that is adverse and detrimental to the stability and future of the NRA. The SLC is operating beyond its authority and every member of the SLC should immediately resign for the good of the order.


President Barr also identifies issues that are described as “areas of disagreement” with the NYAG’s proposal. I completely disagree with President Barr and the Brewer Law firm position that is being promoted which does not represent the majority of the NRA Directors.


Forms of Relief:
Board Size Referendum – This idea is the result of the court being informed by NRA members and other expert witnesses that the NRA Board size is too large. This is an arbitrary solution to a perceived problem. I believe that an optimal Board size can be determined after reviewing the work that is currently being performed at the Board level. In total, there are 44 committees that perform a wide variety of oversight and also managerial tasks. This is worth reviewing, but is not a quick fix to a suggested solution.


In a letter to Judge Cohen on August 14, 2024, Buz Mills and I drafted a similar idea (attachment)
Item# 10 We propose that the appropriate size of the NRA Board of Directors be determined in reviewing best practices of similar boards with significant numbers of committees. We suggest that this item be delegated to the new leadership of NRA 2.0 to investigate and propose a solution to the NYAG’s charitable division that can be mutually agreed upon.


Director Nomination: This idea is a good attempt at removing the punitive bias and retaliation that has existed with the NRA nominating Committee historically and thru the current election cycle. Enlarging
the number of candidates for the Board would provide NRA members more options to choose among qualified candidates as opposed to hand selected candidates by the old guard. I fully support this idea and will work to implement with the NRA Directors during this election cycle.


In a letter to Judge Cohen on August 14, 2024, Buzz Mills and I drafted a similar idea: Item #2 The NRA 2.0 Leadership has recruited candidates to be considered in the next election cycle and we request that all eligible candidates be automatically included on the next election ballot which will be voted on by members in January 2025. The Nominating Committee should be directed to approve every candidate who meets the basic qualifications: Life Member or above for at least five years. Any current Directors running for reelection should be excluded from the ballot if the Director has poor attendance in the previous year of service.

Committee Membership: Removing directors that served on key committees during the critical years whereby fiduciary oversight was absent is a just and appropriate result due to negligence. I fully support this idea and confident that the NRA will have excellent committees in place in the coming weeks.

In a letter to Judge Cohen on August 14, 2024, Buzz Mills and I drafted a similar idea: Item #6 All individuals identified in phase 1 trial as in support of, enabling, facilitating the misuse of funds of the NRA, and all identified “cabal” members be banned from holding any office, chair or vice chair or tier 1 committee member for 3 years.

Committees of the Board: This is an idea proposed by the NYAG and I do not believe will improve the functioning of the committees. The downside to this idea is that potentially a committee (such as the SLC) could operate independently of the Board. As long as good Directors are in place, the committees should be able to operate in accordance with the goals and the direction provided by the entire Board. However, if the committee is operating adverse to the Board then the consequences can be significant.

Compliance Consultant: This idea identified by the NYAG is to provide additional external oversight. I disagree with the NYAG’s position because we have abundant oversight in place. I testified during the trial that we do not have a process problem but instead have a people problem. All of the corruption that occurred was due to the individuals managing the NRA and the NRA Directors that were complicit. We have proper controls in place thanks to Doug Hamlin, Sonya Rawlings, and Bob Mensinger and all transactions are being audited and verified.

Internal Control Audit : This is also an idea proposed by the NYAG to assure that all processes, transactions are being managed correctly. This is not a big issue and the NRA can easily adopt.


NRA members, we are making great strides with all of the changes that been implemented and today the NRA Board of Directors has a majority of good Directors that will shape the future of the NRA for decades to come. As you can sense by this letter, we have issues to resolve and will correct the problems of the past in order to return the NRA back to you – the members. NRA 2.0 is here and we need your support.


Sincerely,


Rocky Marshall
NRA Board Director 2021, 2024-present

The first attachment referred to by Rocky is his affidavit. I have read it multiple times and it is, in my opinion, a straightforward recital of the vote regarding the attempted dissolution of the Special Litigation Committee. I reported on that almost two weeks ago in an annotated post. The annotations indicated who is up for re-election and how they were nominated.

The other document that Rocky refers to in his letter is the joint letter that he and Buz Mills sent to Judge Cohen.

That Horse Has Already Left The Barn

Both the NRA and the New York Attorney General’s Office have submitted their proposals for a final judgment in the New York case on Friday. They both make for interesting reading. I will deal with the substance of both in future posts. However, for now, there was something in the NRA’s memorandum for their Post-Trial Submission & Final Judgement Proposals and the accompanying exhibits that really caught my eye. It dealt with candidates for the Board of Directors and how they are selected.

From the memorandum signed by Sarah Rogers of Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, on page 9 of the document:

Gathering input from Board members and stakeholders this summer, the NRA repeatedly
and consistently heard the following concerns:

  • The NRA must retain an “immune system” against hostile candidacies by
    adverse advocacy groups, who have boasted of attempts to infiltrate or
    hijack the NRA in the past
    ;
  • There must be a mechanism to recruit and prioritize potential directors with
    desirable skills or backgrounds; and
  • There must be a way to limit the total number of candidates on the printed
    ballot, for logistical reasons.
    Rogers Aff. Ex. A at ¶ 9. Accordingly, the NRA cannot simply agree to nominate any five year life member who applies—a framework that could result in millions of candidacies.

And then in Exhibit A which is the Affidavit from NRA President Bob Barr in Item 9 on page 2 there is this:

  1. As it gathered input, the SLC repeatedly heard the following concerns regarding
    the director nomination process:
    ” That the NRA must retain an “immune system” against candidacies promoted by
    adverse advocacy groups, who have boasted of attempts to infiltrate or hijack the
    NRA in the past;

    ” That there must be a mechanism to recruit and prioritize potential directors with
    desirable skills or backgrounds; and
    ” That there must be a way to limit the total number of candidates on the printed
    ballot, for logistical reasons.

Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees!

Barr, the Special Litigation Committee, and the cabal are worried that some anti-gun billionaire like a Bloomberg or a Soros is going to come in, buy a boatload of life memberships for their supporters, and then recruit anti-gun candidates who are 5-year life members to do their dirty work. Instead of being paranoid about some hypothetical infiltration by gun prohibitionists, why not recognize the real source of the damage being done even now to the NRA?

It is Bill Brewer and his cohorts who have sucked the liquidity out of the NRA’s finances with their overpriced (and ineffective) legal “advice”. The same Bill Brewer who has donated to Kamala Harris in January and has donated to Hillary Clinton, Beto O’Rourke, and tons of other anti-gun Democrats. The same Bill Brewer who convinced the Special Litigation Committee that it would be “brilliant” for the NRA to file for bankruptcy so it could avoid the New York courts.

The damage done to the NRA by Brewer is incalculable yet the cabal in their paranoia is more worried about some hypothetical infiltration of the NRA by “adverse interest groups.” If you ever wondered why the NRA has lost almost two million members, you are seeing the reason why. The inmates were running the asylum so to speak and that needs to change.

The only immunity that the cabal really seeks is to avoid being tossed from office. Their actions have guaranteed that they will be tossed on to the ash heap of history and remembered solely for their role in helping to run the NRA into the ground.

NRA Petition Candidates Round-Up (Updated)

Last minute note: The top three listed – Babaz, Brown, and Lee – may not have enough to make on the ballot. If you can get a petition to them directly by Monday, it may help put them over the top.

I received a suggestion from Stephen Wenger of the Defensive Use of Firearms digest that it would be helpful to put links to all the petition candidates in one post. I quite agree.

His second suggestion was to remind readers that if they are signing multiple petitions, it would easier and cheaper to send them all to Rocky Marshall. He is right!

An important note – Rocky needs to get them by September 30th so they can be sent to the individual candidates. Under the NRA’s antiquated rules, petitions can only be submitted to the NRA by the candidate and no one else. The NRA’s deadline to have them delivered to the Office of the Secretary is October 8th.

That address is Frontier Truck Gear, Attn Rocky Marshall, PO Box 277, Center Point, TX 78010.

Here are the links in no particular order:

Paul Babaz

Charlie Brown

Willes Lee

Jim Porter

Frank Tait

Scott Emslie

Todd Figard

Howard Massingill

Jonathan Goldstein

Jim Sheckels

Jason Wilson

Todd Vandermyde

Theresa Inacker

And finally, there is me (John Richardson). I am still running for the Board by petition.

Time is getting critical as we have only about two weeks to finish gathering petitions. If you have a club meeting in the next week or so, print out some or all of the petitions and ask voting members to sign. If you have a shooting competition this next weekend, do likewise. If you have a gun show next weekend, consider taking petitions with you and asking people to sign.

The key thing to remember is that you are doing this for the future of the NRA. All of us above are just your tools to effect change. As someone told me in an email when he sought to have friends at the range sign my petition, they all expressed disappointment in the NRA and were waiting to see change before they could be bothered to sign my petition.

We are all disappointed but if we keep waiting for change before acting, it will never get done. You, I, and everyone else needs to act now!

You Did It! I Made My NRA Petition Numbers

547 petition signatures with membership numbers sent by UPS Next Day Air to the NRA Office of the Secretary.

236 petition sheets with an average of 2.32 signatures per page.

The stack was about 1.5 inches and weighed just under three pounds.

Blank sheet on top for privacy.

USPS came through by delivering enough petitions with signatures on Friday to surpass the bylaw required number of 398.

I could not have done this without the aid of all of you who mailed me your petitions directly, those who signed a petition at a gun club, or those who mailed their petitions to Rocky Marshall in Texas for forwarding to me.

Beyond the many individuals who sent me their petition, I would like especially to thank Karl Rehn, Phil Journey, “Bitter”, and Todd Vandermyde for gathering multiple sheets of signatures at events like a class or GRPC and at their respective gun clubs. I also want to thank Rocky Marshall who helped coordinate the gathering of petitions for all the reform candidates and then sending them forward. Finally, a big thanks to Buz Mills of Gunsite for a huge email push, to the Board of Directors of California Rifle and Pistol Association for suggesting their members consider signing candidates’ petitions, and to the Indiana State Rifle and Pistol Association which did likewise.

Two things were made very clear through this whole process to me. First, there are many, many individual NRA members who are not happy with the current state of things and want reform. Second, the number of people who have dropped their NRA annual memberships over the past few years is extraordinarily large. This was due in large part to a) disgust over the corruption and grifting by Wayne and his friends, b) the failure by many long-time members on the current Board to do their fiduciary duty, and c) a feeling that the NRA was no longer relevant in the fight for the Second Amendment as they had compromised one time too many. Any current board member that does not recognize that sticking to the “old ways” and looking the other way contributed in large part to the huge decline in membership of the NRA should think twice about remaining on the board.

To conclude, I want to reiterate my great thanks to all who signed my petition and those of other 13 reform candidates. I think all will be on the ballot come 2025.