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The Voices Of The Second Amendment

May 14, 2025 by 0 Comments

A new feature to the NRA Annual Meeting was the Voices of the Second Amendment section. It featured a number of podcasters who recorded interviews with people in the industry, others of interest, and even newly elected NRA Board members. Thanks goes to Amanda Suffecool who conceived it and helped organize it. She took as her inspiration what has been called “radio row” at the SHOT Show.

Among the podcasters was Alex Ooley of the Forge of Freedom Podcast. Alex had interviewed me a few times in the past regarding the NYAG’s trial in New York and my run for the NRA Board of Directors. This interview was done on Friday afternoon. It was the day before the Meeting of Members in which I presented my resolution on transparency.

Other podcasters involved in this effort included big names like Michael Bane, Stephen Gutowski of The Reload, Tom and Ryan Gresham of Gun Talk, and Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms. I understand it was considered a great success by all involved and will be expanded at next year’s annual meeting in Houston, Texas.

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Interview On Assorted Calibers Podcast

May 14, 2025 by 0 Comments

After I returned from the NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta, I was interviewed by Weer’d Beard of the Assorted Calibers Podcast. Weer’d and I go way back as I think we first met in person at the 2011 NRA Annual Meeting held in Pittsburgh. Long before Weer’d got into podcasting he was a gun blogger.

We discussed among other things our mutual impressions of the Annual Meeting, how the Board meeting went on Monday, and how the NRA 2.0 reform wing won all the major officer positions. You can find the show notes for Episode 344 of the Assorted Calibers Podcast here.

You can listen to my interview starting at about the 55:00 mark. The audio of the podcast can be found here.

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Light Over Heat Book Club- Jens Ludwig

May 13, 2025 by 1 Comment

Prof. David Yamane of Wake Forest University has been sponsoring an online book club for about a year now. He calls it the Light Over Heat Book Club. I am one of a very diverse group of panelists who attend to discuss the book in question. Panelists include firearms trainers, gun rights activists, historians, a criminologist, a podcaster who works for Brady, and more.

The latest book we are reading is called Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence by Prof. Jens Ludwig. (#commission earned) He is an economist at the University of Chicago who runs the Crime Lab. In this book he is attempting to apply some of the key tenets of behavioral economics to why crime varies by neighborhood. Those tenets are derived from the work of Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman who held there were essentially two types of thinking. You have thinking fast or reaction based upon past experience (System 1) and thinking slow based upon more logical, considered thought (System 2).

We were fortunate enough to have been sent pre-publication proof editions of Ludwig’s book by the University of Chicago Press. We have had three meeting to discuss the book and tomorrow (Wednesday, May 14th at 6p, Eastern) we will have Ludwig himself join us to answer questions about his book.

You can listen in and watch by Zoom. You will be able to put comments in chat. However, to participate you must register.

Here is that info:

If you’re interested in attending the Light Over Heat Virtual Book Club as a viewer, please Register for the Zoom Webinar discussion here: https://wakeforest-university.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V4NoGtyoSia-1utMlT1KPg

Only registered attendees can join the meeting.

I will say that while I disagree with much of what Ludwig has written it has been one of the more readable books that we discussed. If you have any interest in the topic and you should because Ludwig’s work is used extensively by the gun control industry, sign up and listen in.

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Great Idea From Dean Weingarten

May 8, 2025 by 10 Comments

Dean Weingartern writes for Ammoland.com. He and I have known one another for years. His most recent article covered the seminars and workshops held at the NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta.

After noting that these seminars contain valuable content – and he is absolutely correct on this – he added:

It is impossible for one person to attend all the incredible content available. There is top-of-the-line content available for a wide variety of interests. This correspondent suggests attendees look over what is available and prioritize what is most important to them. During the three days of the Annual Meeting, this correspondent was able to attend most of the three seminars.

I know I only was able to attend the NRA Clubs and Associations workshop on Friday. I went to that one because clubs and associations will be one of the prime ways that the NRA will use to rebuild membership and thus revenues. There were plenty others that I wished I could have attended. I really love the seminars dealing with historic firearms and their use in certain wars and battles. The seminars led by Major John Plaster and historian Martin K. A. Morgan are some of the best around.

Dean made this suggestion with which I wholeheartedly agree. If it can be done, this would be a valuable outreach effort by the NRA.

This correspondent would like to see all of these seminars recorded and posted online by the NRA. It is a shame to see the exposure limited to the few hundred people who may see it during the event. There are serious issues about copyright and content that would have to be worked out.  The technology is there. Perhaps, it could be done on a voluntary basis by the people giving the seminars.  These seminars offer world-class information that deserves a wider audience.

Cost would be a factor. The issues about copyright and content that Dean points out would have to taken into consideration. That said, I think it is an idea worth pursuing.

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SIG Brings In The Big Guns

May 8, 2025 by 0 Comments

Many in the firearms community have heard of the reported issues with the SIG Sauer P320 regarding unintended discharges. Indeed, the Washington State Police Academy has banned the pistol’s use at their classes and ranges. SIG is hitting back with a website called “The Truth about the SIG P320”.

So amid all this controversy, I found a story that was sent to me by a good friend quite timely. It is from a newsletter put out by Politico called the Politico Insider. The lead story was about SIG Sauer hiring Chris Cox and his firm Capital 6 Advisors.

HIRED GUNS: Sig Sauer has added the gun lobby’s former top lobbyist to its lineup of outside firms. The German handgun maker and defense manufacturer retained Capitol 6 Advisors, the firm started by Chris Cox after stepping down as the chief lobbyist at the National Rifle Association, back in February, according to a newly filed disclosure.

— Capitol 6 Advisors’ Phil Hoon and Stephanie Gadbois are working on the account as well on issues related to small arms manufacturing, gun regulations and foreign military sales.

— Despite spending more than two decades at the NRA, Sig Sauer is the first gun manufacturer Cox has registered to lobby for since starting his firm in 2019. Sig Sauer also retains Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Politico Insider is wrong on when Chris was forced out by Wayne at the NRA. That was actually in June 2019. The NRA-ILA is now on its third Executive Director since Chris was forced out. .

Regardless of the actual cause of the P320 issues, SIG Sauer was smart to hire Capital 6 Advisors as Chris Cox really does know a little something about firearms.

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For North Carolinians – Ring Bell

May 5, 2025 by 1 Comment

Rep. John Bell IV (R-Wayne) is the chairman of the House Rules Committee. It is in his committee that HB5 – NC Constitutional Carry Act – is stuck. The Senate has already passed SB50 which is their version of the bill and HB5 has passed through the House Judiciary 2 Committee. All it needs for a floor vote is a positive vote in Rules.

Grass Roots North Carolina issued an alert yesterday evening asking for people to contact Bell’s office tomorrow and ask him to move the bill. If you read between the lines it is saying that GRNC-PVF will work hard to re-elect representatives like Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg). Cotham, you may recall, was the the representative who switched from the Democrats to the Republicans after all the abuse she took for being absent on the day the veto override was held on the repeal of the pistol purchase permit. That she was being treated for long Covid didn’t matter to the progressive wing of the Democrats.

So put this on your to-do list for tomorrow morning:

LET’S RING JOHN’S “BELL” 
Said GRNC president Paul Valone, “Rules Chair John Bell, when asked about both permitless carry bills currently in his committee, gave the usual politician song-and-dance about how he “needs to be sure we can get 72 votes” to override Steins inevitable veto (which is not possible), further vacillating with Who will defend our members in marginal districts?“

My direct answer to Bell was, “You won’t know whether you get 72 votes until you take the vote, and the GRNC Political Victory will give cover to any House member in a marginal district who votes for it. We need a vote in the Rules Committee on permitless carry, Rep. Bell.

“Since he is apparently not convinced, it’s time “RING” Rep. Bell  and make sure you are heard LOUD & CLEAR, not by email, but by phone. Specifically, we would like you to call Rep. Bell’s office on Tuesday (May 6) between the hours of 9 AM and 11 AM. (If you can’t call then or miss it, call whenever you can.)

Deliver the following simple message, using voicemail if necessary: “Rep. Bell and other Republican leaders need to remember the gun voters who gave them their majority by giving an immediate hearing to permitless concealed carry in House Bill 5  and Senate Bill 50. We were denied permitless carry in 2023. We expect it in 2025.”
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED
CALL REP JOHN BELL! 

CONTACT NC House Republican John Bell by phone:   Specifically, we would like you to call Rep. Bell’s office on Tuesday (May 6) between the hours of 9 AM and 11 AM. (If you can’t call then or miss it, call whenever you can!)

Deliver the message below in the “Deliver This Message” Section.

DONATE TO GRNC: We are still low on funds after our highly successful election effort. Please donate by going to: grnc.org/wp/2012/06/donate-to-or-join-grnc/  

CONTACT INFORMATION

Below,  find a the phone number for Rep Bell. Beneath that, in the Deliver This Message section, find the suggested phone message.  Be respectful, but be short and to the point with your phone message/call!

NC HOUSE  REPUBLICAN John Bell

919-715-3017
DELIVER THIS MESSAGE

USE VOICEMAIL IF NECESSARY

“Rep. Bell and other Republican leaders need to remember the gun voters who gave them their majority by giving an immediate hearing to permitless concealed carry in  House Bill 5 and  Senate Bill 50. We were denied permitless carry in 2023. We expect it in 2025.”


Respectfully, [your name]

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A 2A Coalition Of The Willing

May 4, 2025 by 0 Comments

This is what I would call a 2A coalition of the willing. Willing to defend the Second Amendment and our rights under it. You have state groups that are affiliated with the NRA and state groups that are independent. You have a group that represents gun dealers. You have a couple of Second Amendment legal foundations. You have a group that advocates for the right of LGBTQ individuals to protect themselves. And you have the National Rifle Association.

They have come together to file an amicus curiae brief in support of Jason Wolford and his fellow petitioners as they seek a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court. This is the same case that the United States has filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioners who are challenging a Hawaii law that permits carry only on private premises that are explicit in allowing it. The Hawaii law is a challenge to the Bruen decision which said it was legal to be armed in public including on private premises. Traditionally, carry is curtailed on private property in which the owners post against it and not as the 180 degree approach of Hawaii.

This amicus curiae brief makes two major arguments. First, that the Hawaii law was invented to undermine the Bruen decision. Second, that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals misread historical precedents and relied upon outliers including a “black code” law from post-Civil War Louisiana.

The genesis of the panel’s second purported historical analogue is downright repugnant. After the Civil War, defeated Confederate states sought to enact racial apartheid. One such enactment was the 1865 Louisiana law on which the panel relied. As another court recognized in discussing this very law, Louisiana “created these laws as part of their discriminatory ‘Black Codes,’ which sought to deprive African Americans of their rights.” Kipke v. Moore, 695 F. Supp. 3d 638, 659 (D. Md. 2023) (citing McDonald
v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742, 850 (2010) (Thomas, J., concurring in the judgment)). The law was never
intended to be enforced against White residents.

I am greatly heartened to see these organizations working in concert on pro-Second Amendment litigation. I am especially pleased to see the NRA-ILA participating as it had gone its own way in past years and would have never cooperated with other groups like this in the Wayne LaPierre years.

Now it is time to extend this same level of cooperation to pro-Second Amendment legislation. It can’t come too soon.

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Meeting Of Members – Resolution Four

May 2, 2025 by 1 Comment

The fourth and final resolution of the day at the Meeting of Members was offered by Dan Cline. This resolution called out David Coy for his work as Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee. It offered several examples of what the author termed as failures and ultimately called for Mr. Coy to resign from the Board of Directors as a result of a vote of no confidence.

This resolution was defeated. Like with Resolution Two, it condemned past behavior and in my opinion the members attending wanted to move forward. While Mr. Coy remains on the Board of Directors, he was removed from the Audit Committee. Moreover, the Final Judgment in the New York trial specifies that no director who served on the Audit committee during the years 2014 through 2022 shall be elected to the Audit Committee.

Below is the resolution offered by Dan Cline:

I appreciate Dan for sending me a copy of his resolution when I requested it.

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Meeting of Members – Resolution Three

May 2, 2025 by 3 Comments

The third resolution considered at the 2025 Meeting of Members was offered by yours truly. It was my resolution calling for transparency by posting our Form 990s, an up-to-date version of the Bylaws, minutes of the Board of Directors meetings, and a list of Board committees with a listing of members. It also called for a feasibility study by the Board on livestreaming our Board of Directors meetings. Upon the advice of Amanda Suffecool, I kept the wording of the resolution as bare bones as I could.

Here is the resolution as submitted:

WHEREAS, the National Rifle Association as an effective organization that exists for the benefit of its members must be transparent in its actions, finances, and organizational rules;  and

WHEREAS, an enhanced commitment to transparency enhances and extends the official NRA Compliance Commitments to Members; and

WHEREAS, transparency is a critical component in reinvigorating membership; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that, on this 26th day of April, 2025, the members of the National Rifle Association of America here gathered at the Annual Meeting of Members in Atlanta, Georgia do hereby request the NRA Board of Directors to create a NRA members-only webpage; and

RESOLVED, that we, the members here gathered, further request the NRA Board of Directors to include on this NRA members-only webpage an up-to-date edition of the bylaws, the past three years of the organization’s IRS Form 990 filings, the  minutes of all Board of Directors (meetings) for the past year as well as all future meetings, and a list of all the Board committees including their membership ; and

RESOLVED, that we, the members here gathered, further request the NRA Board of Directors to investigate the feasibility of live-streaming Board meetings with a report of their findings to be published in the Official Journal.

If you have read my report or that of Stephen Gutowski in The Reload, you know that this resolution passed overwhelmingly. Not only did it pass but it was sent directly to the Board of Directors without referral to any committee. According to Stephen, he counted about six No votes.

What seemed to be the primary objection to my resolution was about the costs of doing this. I’d like to address this. First, every filing or document that I requested to be put on a webpage that could accessed by members only would have already been created by NRA staff. The only cost might be the less than hour time of the webmaster to upload the documents. Next, a members only portal does not need to be created as one already exists!

If you go to www.nra.org, you will see a link that leads to a Member Services page. See where I have circled in red.

Member services allows one to access their membership information and requires a log-on. You can set up your own User ID and Password as a first time user. I had forgotten my password so had to have it reset and it just took a call to toll-free number to do it. As you can see in the picture below where I have circled, the NRA’s Annual Compliance Report to Members is already there. Adding additional documents is no big deal.

What has been lost by the NRA in the last few years is trust. Transparency builds trust. Trust gets old members to return and encourages new people to join. Posting these documents is an easy and cost-effective first step in our efforts to rebuild trust in the organization.

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Meeting Of Members – Resolution Two

May 2, 2025 by 0 Comments

The second resolution offered at the 2025 NRA Meeting of Members was also by Ronald Andring, Sr. This resolution condemned the past collusion of the Executive VP of the NRA in manipulating the nomination and election process. As was revealed in both the New York AG’s trial and by the podcast Gangster Capitalism, Wayne LaPierre had sought to have a “friendly” Board of Directors elected. He did this by using monies from his budget to campaign for the 76th Director and by using his gatekeeper Millie Hallow as an intermediary between himself and the Nominating Committee.

This resolution, unlike Ron’s earlier resolution, was defeated. I spoke with Ron after the Meeting of Members and he was still satisfied despite not having both of his resolutions adopted. He was able to be heard and to get his information out into the public arena.

Andring Resolution No. 2 – 2025 Meeting of MembersDownload