by 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.
See my response on X for how ideas have been proposed to at least one office that would cover the costs (for one of the NRA events, so no copyright concerns) and that already has tech to show links only to people who have paid for certain things. They just won’t. If y’all can get the attitudes to change, it would be awesome.
John, please do rise it with the board. It be worthwhile to reach out to Fernando Coelho at Panteao Productions/Make Ready TV who’s built a successful business doing this very thing as an advisor or consultant.
Funny you should mention Fernando. I met him while stuck in a line at the Atlanta airport when we both were coming back from South Africa last June. That is a great idea.
Back when I was a 20-something whelp in college, Fernando ran a little forum where a lot of old-time gunwriters like Mas Aoob, Dean Speir, Charlie Petty, Patrick Sweeney, Walt Rauch just to name a few hung out. It’s been tumbleweed hell since about the mid 2010s after FC sold the forum to absentee owners and most of the old hands were ushered on to The Range Upstairs, but I consider it a great privilege to have received their wisdom and mentorship while I could.
Ugh, that should have read “it MIGHT be worthwhile.” I swear, my laptop randomly drops words just to annoy me…
If the content is worthwhile, but the creator/speaker has concerns about giving away his work, then have “premium content” available on the member’s portal to allow those who are willing to pay for it access.
Yes, there would be some costs involved beyond compensating creator/speaker but should be able to cover costs with the premium payment.
Personally, I hardly ever go to the NRA website as there really isn’t anything there I’m interested in spending my time looking at/listening to.
My sense is that presenters do it for the cause rather than the money. If this is correct, copyright could easily be waived. Some may do it for free to build their brand but again that would seem to make things easier rather than harder. If not, then the NRA could set up a pay per view deal (with a small surcharge to handle administration). I don’t think I would want to subscribe to the whole platform but there are pieces I would definitely be interested in. Especially, since only once have I been close enough to physically attend.
Or they could be offered a flat fee-for-service.
Side note: Why are Chris Cox and a so-called “pro gun” Tennessee rep fighting to keep cans on NFA?
https://www.ammoland.com/2025/05/sources-say-chris-cox-and-rep-kustoff-want-suppressors-on-the-nfa/
If anyone here’s in Kustoff’s district, he could use some old-school Phone Melting…
Or do they recognize that the votes aren’t there and are trying to get through a proposal that can be supported? I would like to see better coordination and communication amongst the groups but I’ve not seen anything yet that explains Cox’s position clearly.
Gun clubs will be important to rebuild the NRA. But my gun club is NOT coming back until the NRA gets its house in order and starts actually fighting for gun rights. My gun club used to make NRA membership a prerequisite for membership in our club. I re-wrote the bylaws and dropped that requirement after informing our membership about the sh!tshow that the NRA had become. It still is. I see almost nothing in the media about NRA fighting for gun rights, yet I get frequent emails begging me to return to the fold. Nope. Deeds, not words.