by Our friends at the Falls Township Rifle and Pistol Association have been doing a deep dive into the voting statistics of the NRA. I used to say about 5% of voting members voted in each recent election. I was wrong. It is only marginally more than 3%! I have seen a greater turnout for municipal elections for coroner and Soil & Water Commissioner.
What this means is that the members of your average moderate sized gun club, if NRA voting members, could swing an election. The difference between being on the Board and being a runner-up is usually somewhere around 325 votes.
Your previous statement was generally correct for a long time, though 6% would have been a hair more accurate looking at the past almost 20 years.
In the 10 years ending with 2019, the average board election saw about 6.7% cast ballots. A downward trend actually started the year following the Norquist recall vote. It was the second year that there was a controversial special additional vote (bylaws the year after the recall), so it kind of seemed like people weren’t feeling NRA was headed in a good direction. 2020’s election saw a decent drop to below 5% since I started tracking. Since 2021, the voting rate hasn’t broken 4%.
It seems to me as if there are a couple of reasons for “apathy” amongst NRA voters. First, a lot of us feel so viciously betrayed by far too many of the past & present leadership teams. The former 800 pound gorilla which we used to belong to has been reduced to a “has-been” in the political influence theater. The political wins we’ve seen spawn from the Bruen decision have had GOA, SAF FPC and other names associated with them. These coulda woulda shoulda had NRA plastered all over them, but those trains have left the station. NRA always played “the slient game” of not telling (often not being able to tell) membership the depth of the plans they had going on at any given time. Now that the other organizations protecting 2A rights, are stacking up public wins, many within the 2A community are wondering if donating and participating in the NRA is still a valid cause. The timing of the NRA “$#!T $#0W” was another self inflicted wound. Bruen opened up a new frontier for other 2A organizations to grow and prosper while the NRA is still just trying to survive.
Excuse me if it sounds like I’m $#itting all over the NRA…that’s not my intention. I am saddened by the relative absence of the NRA within our current socio-political landscape, but this all happened because enough people didn’t enough alarms to the depth of the troubles within the NRA boardroom. I pray that they/we can rebound to be a leaner and meaner version of that 800 pound gorilla. I guess time will tell.
I haven’t voted before because of the direction the NRA leadership was going. Using your recommendations I just sent my ballot in. I hope the NRA can be resurrected.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your vote and will do my best to be worthy of it.
I mailed my ballot in 2023, certified mail.
It was returned as undeliverable, invalid address.
If others had the same problem, then 3% is understandable.
I voted the Reform ticket in 2025, write-ins correctly entered, and signed envelope.
I hope it counts.
Awesome news for all us