Month: September 2025

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Location Is Everything…To The Anti’s

September 11, 2025 by 3 Comments

The assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday was a political assassination. It could have happened about anywhere where he was speaking. That it happened at Utah Valley University where he was speaking with and to a crowd of students should be irrelevant.

That is, of course, unless you are Everytown and you need to score points.

It is as if the Everytown social media team had been binge watching House Hunters or some other real estate oriented TV show and heard the agent saying, “Location, location, location.” Then it clicked that Charlie Kirk was murdered on a college campus. Voila!

As Kat Stevens said in her excellent essay on the murder of Charlie Kirk, Everytown is trying to re-classify this political assassination as a school shooting.

I would urge everyone to read Kat’s essay. It should be must reading for this day after this horrific event. I would add that you should also keep Kirk’s wife and children in your prayers. I know what it is to lose a spouse but I had months to prepare for it. She and the kids did not and to see it happen in full Technicolor on every TV station only makes it worse.

H/T Kat

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Transparency Rules!

September 7, 2025 by 2 Comments

The core values of the NRA include a commitment to transparency. It was based on this that I offered a resolution at the 2025 Meeting of Members in Atlanta that was successfully passed. It requested the Board of Directors to post on a members-only webpage certain documents including an up-to-date copy of the bylaws, IRS Form 990s, minutes from the Board of Directors’ meetings, and committee information. It also asked for a feasibility study on live-streaming Board meetings.

Today, in the Fall Board of Directors Meeting, I offered the following resolution which was passed unanimously.

I move that: 

  1. The EVP be directed to make available, through the NRA member self-service website, an up-to-date edition of the Bylaws, the Statements of Responsibility of all standing and special committees, and the past three years of the organization’s IRS Form 990 filings and Board of Directors meeting minutes, to be updated on an ongoing basis; and
  2. That the consideration of live-streaming Board meetings not be pursued at this time.

I worked with the Secretary’s Office to craft this resolution. The only thing missing in Part One from my original resolution in Atlanta was a list of committee members. I was asked to omit this due to security concerns for directors which I understand having spoken a few times with the NRA’s Director of Security.

As to the live-streaming of Board meetings, a cost estimate to live-stream each individual meeting was a minimum of $15,000. As much as I’d like people to be able to watch a Board meeting live, there are better uses for that money. Besides, in all honesty, much of the stuff we do in the meeting is not exciting and borders on the mundane. It is all important but the committee reports can drag out.

I don’t have the exact timeline for this information to be posted but I think it will be sooner than later. I want to thank my fellow directors for voting for transparency which is critical to the rebirth of the NRA. I also want to thank John Frazer and the Secretary’s Office for help on bringing this resolution to fore. Their help was crucial in getting the resolution before the Board for a vote.

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NRA Fall Board Meeting Report

September 5, 2025 by 6 Comments

This week I’m at the NRA board and committee meetings being held in Reston, Virginia. The decision was made earlier that the fall and winter board meetings would be held in Virginia to cut travel costs. By being here, travel for all the associated staff that would normally have to travel to a meeting location in Texas or another state is eliminated. Whereas expenses like this in the past were fluffed off, they are not any more.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are dedicated to committee meetings. The new leadership is committed to reinvigorating committees, reducing their numbers, and demanding results from committees. Just as importantly, committees are no longer little islands acting independently from the rest of the committees. Every committee meeting that I’ve attended has been very aware of the impact of their work and their decisions on other areas of the NRA.

There seems to be a new synergy. Thus, when the Membership Committee pushes for a phone app there is an awareness that this app can be used by NRA-ILA to send out legislative alerts. Likewise, the Legislative Policy Committee recognizes that Second Amendment policies formulated in their committee will have an impact on attracting new members and retaining existing ones.

Wednesday committees for me were the Audit Committee and the Membership Committee. The Audit Committee focused on the draft of the Form 990 and I will have a full report on the Form 990 when it is released. It would be violating my fiduciary duties to go into any further detail on the draft. The Membership Committee is committed to the development of a phone app for both the iPhone and Android platforms. There is a recognition that many of the younger generations use their phone for everything. Working with both the NRA’s in-house IT team and one of our outside marketing vendors, our goal is to have this app ready before the end of the year if not sooner. Naturally, such an app will be a work in progress as more features will be added to it over time.

My Thursday committee meetings were for the Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Committee and the Legislative Policy Committee. Matt Fleming is the new director of Hunting, Conservation, and Ranges replacing Peter Churchbourne who has moved over to the NRA Foundation as their Executive Director. He provided an update on hunting programs such as Hunters for the Hungry. We also heard from Keith Mark with Hunter Nation. Their work in energizing hunters to become active voters using their data driven approach provided the margin of victory in many swing states. There is a recognition that hunters are not necessarily 2A supporters and 2A supporters are not necessarily supporters of hunting initiatives. The job for both the NRA and the independent Hunter Nation is to bring both groups into alignment.

The Legislative Policy Committee heard reports from John Commerford, Director of NRA-ILA, and the directors for State and Local Affairs, Federal Affairs, and International Affairs. Much of the discussion was about the budget reconciliation act and the zeroing out of the taxes on suppressors and short-barreled firearms. The committee also heard reports from the chairs of other committees such as Grassroots and Media as there is a significant interplay between what Leg Policy does and its impact on the grassroots as well as the public image of the NRA.

I don’t have any official committee meeting scheduled for today until late this afternoon. However, I do intend to drop into the Legal Affairs Committee after lunch.

My overall impression of the last few days is that everyone, reformers and Old Guard, are committed to working together to bring the NRA back. I hope that continues on to the Board Meeting on Saturday.

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American Boy Scouts ?

September 5, 2025 by 2 Comments

I was listening to a YouTube video by Ian of Forgotten Weapons when I discovered an organization called the American Boy Scouts, Having been a part of the Boy Scouts of America as a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and, for a short time, an Explorer, I was both mystified and intrigued by this organization. Indeed, as Ian pointed out, Remington even made a single-shot rolling block .22 rifle for the American Boy Scouts. It was the Remington 4-S and was marked American Boy Scout.

Interestingly, the American Boy Scouts were founded in 1910 only a few months after the Boy Scouts of America were founded. Both were based upon the Scouting movement founded in Great Britain by Lord Baden-Powell. Organized by publisher William Randolph Hearst in May 2010 and incorporated a month later, American Boy Scouts were Hearst’s concept of what Scouting should be in the United States. The American Boy Scouts had a more militaristic concept of what Scouting should be than the Boy Scouts of America and included military drill with the Remington 4-S as part of their activities.

Soon after its founding they were urged to unite the American Boy Scouts with the Boy Scouts of America by Ernest Seton and Edgar Robinson. Those two were part of the early founders of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). This was rejected and the American Boy Scouts started organizing first in New England and then the Midwest and West Coast. However, it appears there was quite a bit of conflict within the organization. Hearst left by the end of 1910 over a funding dispute and the New England Division left soon after citing mismanagement.

In 1913, the American Boy Scouts renamed themselves the US Boy Scouts to avoid confusion with the BSA. During World War I, these Scouts performed military drills and sold war bonds. Prior to the US involvement in the war, the US Boy Scouts sought a federal charter but were unsuccessful unlike the Boy Scouts of America. Since the BSA had received a federal charter and USBS did not, the Boy Scouts of America requested the US Boy Scouts to change their name without success. Eventually the matter ended up in court as the Boy Scouts of America sought an injunction to prevent their rivals from using the term “Boy Scouts”. In 1919 a New York court granted the injunction and the US Boy Scouts were barred from using many terms including “scouting”, “boy scout”, and “scout”.

After the lawsuit, the US Boy Scouts renamed themselves American Cadets and later the US Junior Military Forces. While I cannot find the exact date of dissolution, both of these groups faded into the sunset long before World War II.

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Huey Laugesen For NRA Board

September 2, 2025 by 1 Comment

Huey Laugesen is the executive director of the Colorado Shooting Sports Association as well as a member of the NRA’s Membership Committee. He is running to be on the 2026 NRA Board election ballot by petition. I have posted his petition link previously and I’m doing it again.

https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/c1cb1f95-9d72-4df2-9be4-935a07d2e6e6?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

I serve on the Membership Committee with Huey and I am convinced he is someone who needs to be on the Board for a variety of reasons. First, he has successfully increased the membership of the CSSA by 170% in the last two years. His use of targeted mailings in that state should be used as a guide by the NRA.

 Sadly to say given how Colorado politics have trended recently, he is now on the front lines of the battles to preserve our Second Amendment rights. If anyone knows how a state can go from good to bad in a short period of time, it is Huey and he is fighting it tooth and nail.

Huey would bring youth to the Board and would help us find ways to appeal to Millennials and Gen Z. He is, by my estimate, on the lower end of the Millennial generation yet is still a husband and father. In other words, his youth is tempered by responsibility.

Huey’s biography is below:

Huey Laugesen NRA BoD Candidate BioDownload
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Todd Vandermyde For NRA Board

September 1, 2025 by 1 Comment

I nominated Todd Vandermyde for the NRA Board in 2024 and I did it again this year. Neither time resulted in him being nominated by the Nominating Committee which I found very disappointing. Todd was on the ballot by petition for the 2025 Board election and was a part of the NRA 2.0 reform slate. Unfortunately, he missed being elected by a just a few spots.

Todd is again running for the Board by petition. He is off to a good start but needs your help to cross the finish line. If you are a voting member of the NRA, you should sign his electronic petition! Voting members are either Life Members or Annual Members who have 5 or more years of continuous, unbroken membership.

https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/bc943a68-a03b-4e53-be4e-b5f1ddffa775

First and foremost, Todd is an innovative thinker when it comes to finding ways to preserve, protect, and advance the Second Amendment through both legislation and litigation. Sometimes to move beyond incremental change you need a disruptor and I think Todd could provide this to both the Legislative Affairs and Legal Affairs Committees. He fought for over 25 years in the Illinois General Assembly to advance gun rights and won more than he lost. Further, he has helped build Second Amendment litigation from scratch including Shepard v Madigan who brought shall-issue concealed carry to Illinois.

Second, he is the President of the Aurora Sportsman’s Club which is the largest gun club in Illinois with over 2,000 members. Running a gun club that size is like herding cats with all the competing interests and Todd has done it smoothly. Having this non-profit management experience would be valuable on the Board. Even more importantly, clubs and associations have been earmarked as an area in which the NRA is seeking to grow members.

Third, Todd knows social media. His YouTube channel Freedom’s Steel has a growing viewership and Todd’s analysis of cases is spot on. Yeah, he kinda looks like a “Bad Santa” but he is our Bad Santa.

Fourth, Todd knows heavy machinery! Of course he does as he was an operating engineer (aka heavy machinery operator) as a member of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. In other words, Todd has worked with his hands unlike most of us on the NRA Board. Given today is Labor Day, I thought it important to point this out.

Fifth, Todd is a veteran. He served 19 years in the US Army Reserves in a variety of units and MOS’s.

Finally, Todd is my friend and we have known one another for years. That said, I have never been more impressed with Todd than over the past two years as he has helped his wife Amy rebound from a massive stroke. That takes love, dedication, care, and perseverance.

Todd’s bio is below and gives many details. Why he was not nominated by the Nominating Committee is beyond me but you can see that he is on the ballot by signing his petition.

As Nike advertises – Just Do It!

Todd Vandermyde BIODownload