by I had heard rumors of this earlier today but I just received an email from NRA Secretary John Frazer confirming that former NRA President Charles Cotton has resigned from the NRA Board.
Board member and past President Charles Cotton has resigned from the Board and Executive Council, effective immediately.
Tom King was the next runner-up in the 2025 election, but has declined to serve. Jeff Fleetham has accepted the position and will fill the vacancy until the adjournment of the 2026 Members’ Meeting. Mr. Cotton’s term would have expired in 2026, so no additional candidate will be elected to fill the vacancy.
As to why Cotton resigned, there is no official word. However, he had no committee assignments and did not attend the September Board meeting in Virginia. Additionally, he was not re-nominated for the 2026 Board election by the Nominating Committee nor did he apparently gather enough signatures to make the ballot by petition. He does remain a current trustee of the NRA Foundation.
Fleetham had attempted to run by petition for the 2026 Board election according to his earlier posts on Facebook. However, he did not gather enough signatures to make it on to the ballot. In the last election, he was part of the Strong NRA ticket.
Fleetham is a resident of Mesa, Arizona. According to his official bio in last year’s election, he was a 2016 and 2020 RNC delegate for President Trump. He served on the Arizona Register of Contractors for a number of years as a director. His business background is in the construction industry.
He will serve the remainder of Cotton’s term which expires at the close of the Meeting of Members in Houston.
What is with the Executive Council resignation. Its an honorary position with no voting power.
Wishing Cotton the Bye-est of Felicias, and Fleetham a swift follow to Empty Desk Out Door.
Hopefully, the first rat of many for all of the damage he has done and some out it is not reversible!
I guess since John is a board member he did not post that the NRA are having layoffs:
NRA Announces Restructuring, Prepares for Future Battles for Gun Rights
FAIRFAX, VA- Today, the NRA is announcing organizational restructuring. These changes are
aimed at maximizing member dollars, streamlining operations, and investing in critical programs
that best serve NRA members and ensure the long-term strength of the organization.
“It’s our duty to ensure the long-term strength of the Second Amendment and health of our
critical organization,” said Doug Hamlin, Executive Vice President and CEO of the NRA.
“The NRA has delivered on its promise to provide a pro-gun President, Congress, and Supreme
Court for our members. These successes have not gone unnoticed by our adversaries, who are
doubling down on election spending, lawfare, and new programs to push their radical gun-
grabbing agenda. To ensure we are prepared for the fights ahead, we must create a leaner NRA
that focuses on stretching every member dollar to best protect your right to keep and bear
arms.”
Restructuring will occur within NRA Media (formerly NRA Publications), which has avoided
substantial cuts similar to those impacting a large segment of the print media market. In the past
15 years, major publications have foregone print altogether and moved to digital-only models,
yet the NRA currently releases four print publications, 12 months of the year. These publications
will be consolidated into our two legacy brands, American Rifleman and American Hunter,
which will move to a monthly, enhanced, premium digital magazine, accompanied by print
versions released quarterly.
“The NRA is listening and anticipating our members’ needs,” said NRA President Bill
Bachenberg. “NRA 2.0 is re-focusing on its core missions of protecting our God-given Second
Amendment rights, gun safety and training, supporting our Clubs & Associations and shooting
competitions. We are flattening the organizational structure, redeploying staff, and exploiting
technology to better manage the day-to-day activities of the Association. By knocking down the
current vertical silos and creating cross-functional teams, there will be less duplication, stronger
member services, and better communications.”
To increase efficiency and remove redundancies, the NRA will also merge its Membership,
Marketing and Advancement Divisions into a single department. This will streamline operations
and enable the NRA to implement new, data-driven techniques to increase revenue.
NRA-ILA and General Operations are not affected by today’s announcement. The NRA is
increasing its investments in its core missions of promoting and training the safe and lawful use
of firearms as it fights for the Second Amendment rights of Americans in courthouses and state
houses across the country, and in Washington, D.C.
These necessary changes will, unfortunately, impact staff. The NRA’s leadership did not make
these decisions lightly but must realign resources to ensure America’s largest and oldest gun
rights organization remains strong and ready to address the fight ahead.
And what was not in the public release is that employees will be notified when to come back.
I had three back to back meeting for various organizations last night and didn’t have time to post the news release. I will be doing it later this morning.
BTW, the following is quoted from President Bill Bachenberg:
“President Bachenberg has called an online town hall meeting for this Thursday, October 30, at 9:00 PM Eastern Time. No staff will be in attendance.”
That is correct. It was board members only. Secretary John Frazer helped get it started and then logged off.
I’ve often wondered about the NRA magazine. I get Freedom First and enjoy the articles, but most of the political stuff is old news by the time I’m reading it. I also get 30 to 40 emails a day, most of which gets deleted so switching to an online magazine almost guarantees that it won’t get read by most people. Not sure what the answer is. I also Chair a collectors’ society (unrelated to firearms) and I am having the same wonderings about our quarterly magazine. Is it worth it in this day and age?
The American Hunter and American Rifleman will be going to quarterly print editions and monthly digital. The other publications insofar as I can tell will be web-based but not a “digital” magazine. In other words, they will be like news sites if I understand it correctly.
I think the feeling was that young members don’t read print magazines and NRA publications needs to follow the rest of the industry. I know old standards like Guns and American Handgunner have recently ended their print publications and are going online only.
I assume this means that SI is just going away which is a pity. At one time or another I have subscribed to all 4 and SI best suits my interest. At some point, will we be asked which of the two survivors we wish to receive?
I’m with you on Shooting Illustrated as best supporting my interests. I like the historical stories in American Rifleman but for day to day stuff, SI is better. American Hunter mirrors too many other magazines.
I think the answer to your question is probably no. From what I understand, it will only be AR and AH in print.
Sounds like the direction FMG is going… the issues of Guns and American Handgunner on newsstands now are the end of dead-tree.
The answer is certain companies have strategic visions and understood that printing was obsolete 15 years ago and switched to digital. For example, one of several companies that l always read is PCmag which last printed edition, by the way it was monthly, was January 2009.
NRA does not process the abilities to formulate strategic visions, because the former and current officers are struck in the same paradigm. It is inexcusable the NRA has less than 5 million members when there are over 100 million gun owners!
For example, create an executive board of 7 to run the the NRA and have the ridiculous 76 current board become an advisory board, give children free NRA memberships, have “Zombie shot” competitions, action shooting video games (no people killing), 3 gun action pistol, influencers that promotes shooting and competitions to the young, etc..
To All NRA Staff:
Since 2019, NRA has faced numerous challenges which have impacted our ability to serve our members. These challenges are the byproduct of the difficult circumstances of the past several years.
As a result, we are making difficult decisions. This will require reorganization. We are implementing these changes with the guidance of our Board of Directors.
One of the difficult decisions involves placing some staff on furlough. These notifications will occur tomorrow, Friday, October 31, 2025. The Headquarters building will be closed that day, and staff should not come to the building unless specifically told to do so. Anyone being transitioned to furlough status will be notified via their NRA email address between the hours of 1:00 PM ET and 3:00 PM ET tomorrow. Employees should be sure to monitor their emails in the event they receive a notice. Employees being furloughed will receive communications from Human Resources that will provide important information.
These are challenging times for our Association. The decision to activate furloughs is not being taken lightly. There is no good time to do this. The intent is to further stabilize the NRA so we can continue to serve our members and protect the freedom of all law-abiding firearms owners.
Doug Hamlin
Executive Vice President/CEO
National Rifle Association of America
One critical issue that seems to be omitted from the NRA’s press releases is whether the organization’s top thirty highest-paid employees took any salary reductions prior to announcing staff furloughs. If no such pay cuts occurred at the executive level, then the decision to furlough employees was both premature and inappropriate. Leadership should always share in the sacrifice before asking rank-and-file employees to bear the burden.