by 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.
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.
