On This Memorial Day Weekend

There are a lot of sales going on right now. Whether it is Amazon or Nike, it seems virtually every online site or brick and mortar store is having a sale. They are using the three-day weekend to pump their sales numbers.

Notice I said “virtually”. One company that is not having a sale this weekend is Phlster Holsters owned by my friends Jon and Sarah Hauptman. Phlster is home to the Enigma holster system which is a new approach to appendix carry.

This was Jon’s response when asked if he was having a Memorial Day sale.

Jon is correct and I know if I ever decide to carry appendix-style it will be with one of his Enigma holsters. It will not be just because it is a great holster. It will be because I like to deal with companies that have the proper value system – and Jon and Sarah just demonstrated that.

So regardless of whether you take advantage of any of the sales this weekend, please remember to honor the ultimate sacrifice that these men and women made in service to our country and our own freedom.

Note: As an affiliate of Amazon, I have to say I earn a small commission if you use a link to them from my blog. This note is only to satisfy their requirements and not to urge you to run over to Amazon so I can make a commission.

Hamlin Reaches Out To Staff Today

New NRA CEO and EVP Doug Hamlin sent out an email this morning to all NRA staff. It was part thank you, part what we need to do, part how he intends to manage, and part recognition that finances are tough.

There were some interesting points in what he said to staff that need to be emphasized. First and foremost, he said that he and all the NRA staff work for the members. That was nice to hear given the perception that many including Wayne only saw the members as sheep to be fleeced. Second, Hamlin emphasized that the NRA is not leaving Fairfax anytime soon. He encouraged employees in the Metro DC region to return to work in the headquarters building. Third, he said there would be new digital marketing initiatives to increase memberships and challenged employees to tell their friends to join. Finally, he said his objective was to restore trust in the NRA. He didn’t sugarcoat the fact that finances are tight.

The one thing I did disagree with him on is the assertion that the NRA is “the most significant conservative organization left on the battlefield.” I think we need to get away from the perception that the NRA is only for conservatives. While I am most certainly a conservative with libertarian leanings, I recognize that support for the Second Amendment and our civil rights is not limited to conservatives nor should it be. Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, if you support the Second Amendment then you are my friend.

You can read the whole email for yourself as I’ve posted it below:

From: Hamlin, Douglas
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2024 9:28 AM
To: #All NRA Employees <#AllNRAEmployees@nrahq.org>
Subject: Full Speed Ahead!

To All:

I’m humbled and honored to be sending you this e-mail as your new EVP/CEO. It has been a tumultuous 5 years as we have battled for the survival of our beloved National Rifle Association (NRA). Every one of us has been in the trenches as we have fought the good fight and kept the faith. We have stood strong shoulder to shoulder working together on behalf of our members. I want to emphasize – WE WORK FOR OUR MEMBERS!

THANK YOU for not wavering as we have withstood extreme pressure and disinformation from the media, left leaning political forces, and the State of New York.

I’ve been a proud NRA Staffer for over 10 years. I do not assume my new position for any other reason than I love my country and will not stand idly by as we see our freedoms diminished. The NRA is the most significant conservative organization left on the battlefield. We are targeted because we win…and we are right in our cause!

As we move forward my primary objective is to restore the trust of our members, our industry, our donors, and our staff. We are in a tough spot financially but are going to make it. I will be spending a significant amount of time fundraising to keep our 153 years + operation on track. Once our members see we are making progress with the changes resulting from the efforts of our Board of Directors, they will come back in significant numbers. I ask you to go out and recruit new members. Tell your friends to join!

There has been a lot of talk about moving our operations away from Fairfax, Virginia. We will not be moving at this time. I hope those of you in the DC, Maryland, Virginia region will come to our office as much as possible. 

My leadership style is one of consensus building. I do not like to be micro-managed and that’s how I will interact with the leadership team. Having said that I’m not afraid to make tough decisions and get involved when and where needed.

We will be moving quickly on some digital marketing initiatives to stir up some positive public relations that will hopefully stimulate new memberships. Stay tuned for more information on our plans as we develop them.

In closing thank you for your dedication to our cause. Our mission to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens is more important now than ever before. Hold your heads high as we continue to do the important work of the NRA…together.

Doug Hamlin

Executive Vice President/CEO

National Rifle Association

Change Has Come Quickly In Fairfax

Doug Hamlin was elected CEO and EVP of the NRA only yesterday but has hit the road running. Today, he announced that the positions of secretary and general counsel would be separated. As a result, John Frazer is no longer the General Counsel of the NRA. However, he will remain in the position of Secretary for which the Board elected him yesterday.

The new General Counsel is Michael Blaz. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1989. Blaz did his undergraduate work at Auburn University where he was a member of Phi Eta Sigma honor society. According to Martindale-Hubbell, Blaz is licensed to practice law in Virginia (1989) and the District of Columbia (1991).

Here is Hamlin’s announcement of the separation of the two positions and the appointment of Blaz as General Counsel.

Blaz had been the Assistant General Counsel before his promotion to General Counsel. I would also point out that Blaz has significantly more legal experience than Frazer who was only admitted to the bar in 2014.

The optics of a general counsel being found guilty of breach of fiduciary duties made it untenable to keep Frazer in that position. Hamlin has demonstrated he is working quickly to clean up the mess he was left at the NRA.

An Interesting Day In Dallas

This is going to be short post because I’m tired. I have been watching and corresponding about the events surrounding the Board of Directors meeting all day.

First, just the bare facts. Bob Barr representing the Old Guard did win the Presidency. The vote was 37-30. Then the surprises began. Bill Bachenberg from the reform slate went head to head with Blaine Wade for 1st VP and won 36-31. Following that, reformer Mark Vaughan, president of the Oklahoma Rifle Association, beat Tom King 35-31. King really represented the Old Guard and his defeat was a sea change in attitude on the Board.

Second, and what I consider the biggest surprise, Doug Hamlin, Executive Director of Publications and the reformer’s choice for EVP, beat Ronnie Barrett for EVP/CEO. There is some talk that Hamlin is intended as an interim choice while a nationwide search is conducted.

For a bare bones, just the facts ma’am report on what has happened so far, the NRA-ILA did a decent job. Here is a link to it.

A more in-depth report is from Stephen Gutowski of The Reload which has some comments from Jeff Knox.

The last I knew was that the meeting was still continuing after coming back from a dinner break. The keys going forward will be membership on the Nominating and Executive Committee. As I noted this morning, there were no reformers nominated for the Executive Committee. That must change.

I hope to have more tomorrow.

Ronnie Barrett For EVP?

I just got a copy of the Nominating Committee report. In addition to Bob Barr for President, Tom King and Blaine Wade are nominated as 1st and 2nd VP respectively. As rumored, David Coy was sacrificed.

The big surprise is Ronnie Barrett for EVP. I am sure the argument will be that he has the requisite business experience to run a large organization such as the NRA thanks to his history as CEO of Barrett Firearms Manufacturing. Now that he has sold that company to the Australians, he is free to take on other challenges. Not being in the room, we don’t know if he is being pitched as a temporary fix for the next couple of years or not. He is 70 years old so that might be the case. My objection to Barrett would revolve around him being a “Friend of Wayne” and it gives the anti’s more ammunition to accuse the NRA of just being a tool of the firearms industry. If the NRA was going to take a former CEO of a firearms company as the EVP, I think Mike Fifer of Ruger would have been a better choice.

I would also note that not one single reformer is nominated for the Executive Committee. It the Old Guard or the Cabal in its composition. I am a bit surprised that Marion Hammer was nominated for it as she had broken with the Cabal. Also, I see Joel Friedman who couldn’t even win the 76th Director position but only made it back to the Board by the resignation of Carl Rowan, Jr. is given a seat on it.

In other nominations, both John Frazer and Sonya Rowling keep their jobs with Bill Brewer’s guy Robert Mensinger joining as the Chief Compliance Officer. Seems like a good enough pick but he is tainted by association with Bill Brewer. As to Frazer, I perceive him as a nice – but weak – guy who is in over his head. In no other non-profit or corporation would the General Counsel still have the job after a jury found him guilty of violating his fiduciary duties and submitting false filings to a governmental agency. Rowling is, like Frazer, someone who in the end who will do what they are told. Witness the cutting of a check to Brewer’s law firm this weekend even though it devastates the NRA’s finances.

Here is the full report. Make your own decisions about it. In my opinion, it is a big FU to those who want change, those who want transparency, and those who think the members actually count.

An Apology Demanded Of Charles Cotton

This seems to be the night for letters!

Buz Mills, Bill Bachenburg, and Mark Vaughan are demanding that NRA President Charles Cotton issue a public apology to NRA Director Amanda Suffecool. This is for the unprofessional and unbecoming way he treated her at the NRA Meeting of Members on Saturday. At about the 31:25 minute mark of the second video in this post, Cotton challenges the statement from Amanda by saying, “you’ve been on the board, what a year”, as if that made her any less knowledgeable or competent. Amanda was, after all, an engineer for almost 40 years and knows of what she speaks.

Fortunately, the NRA members at the meeting were not having any of Cotton’s crap and booed him quite loudly. Now, the three directors mentioned above have sent out an open letter to all Board members demanding the aforementioned public apology. I could say more about what I think of Cotton as a person and as a supposed leader but I’ll save that for another day.

The full letter is below:

An Open Letter From NRA Staffers To The Board

I received this open letter to the NRA Board within the last hour. It is reportedly from current and former NRA staffers who are fed up with Charles Cotton, Bill Brewer, and most of the upper management of the NRA. The level of detail in the letter is enough to convince me it is real such as Sonya Rowling being forced to cut a check to Brewer by Andrew Arulanadam. I learned of that just earlier this afternoon.

Here is the letter in its unedited entirety. Given it is an open letter, it is meant for sharing. You might want to share it with each and every Board member that you know. I know they sent it to the NRA email address for the Board but I doubt it will be routed to Board members before their 9am CDT meeting tomorrow in Dallas.

Dear NRA Board of Directors,

We are writing as current and former NRA staff members. We choose to remain anonymous due to the almost certain retaliation from NRA executives and the Brewer firm. Since 2018, our association has been in complete peril, and no one has asked the NRA’s staff for their input. We are the ones who work day in and day out to accomplish the NRA’s mission of promoting the safe and responsible use of firearms and defending the Second Amendment. Meanwhile, it has become clear that NRA’s executives and officers are focused on ensuring a steady revenue stream for the Brewer firm. We pose this question: When will we stop the bleeding, and when is enough, enough?

Over the past six years, the NRA has become unrecognizable. The NRA of 2018 is far different from the NRA of 2024, and this convention hall is proof. This deterioration is due to the NRA’s poor leadership. President Cotton, Andrew Arulanandam, Randy Kozuch, Tyler Schropp, Doug Hamlin, and Sonya Rowling have not, and arguably never have, acted in the best interest of NRA members. The NRA’s recent misfortunes are often blamed on the New York Attorney General. While we are no fans of Letitia James, 90% of the NRA’s issues are now self-inflicted. Yes, AG James has had a gun pointed at the NRA from the start of her campaign, but NRA’s leadership continues to hand her magazines with ammunition.

We will briefly discuss each leader, avoiding rehashing old issues.

President Cotton has overseen many of the NRA’s poor decisions over the years on the Audit Committee, the SLC, and as President. It’s time to change his title from president to king because he is acting as a monarch. King Charles has been positioning himself to become executive vice president and chief executive officer. Anyone familiar with his record at the NRA knows he is not the right fit for EVP. The new NRA EVP needs to be unapologetically pro-gun, innovative, politically connected, and experienced in turning around failing organizations. King Charles is not that person. His primary focus is on maintaining his relationship with the Brewer firm. Recent reports confirmed by the Brewer firm show that King Charles and Bill Brewer even fly on private jets together. The firm claims this saves the NRA money, but this is unlikely. While the firm may not directly bill the NRA for the jet, there is nothing to stop them from increasing their billable hours. This is reminiscent of the MMP yacht situation. King Charles and Bill Brewer are the only ones pushing for the move to Texas because they are both based there. No other staff member, including NRA’s Interim CEO Andrew Arulanandam, plans on moving to Texas. King Charles’s goal is to secure a high salary for a few years as his retirement fund.

Andrew Arulanandam cannot make a good decision to save his life. Since taking his position on February 1, the NRA has continued to decline. Arulanandam exists in his position solely to follow King Charles’s orders and maintain the relationship with the Brewer firm. In fact, Arulanandam reportedly forced Sonya Rowling to pay Brewer millions of dollars today before tomorrow’s board meeting. If King Charles becomes EVP, Arulanandam will be rewarded and return to his high-paying job as executive director of General Operations, with an updated salary and maximized pension at retirement.

Randy Kozuch has been consistently overlooked throughout his career at the NRA. Kozuch is not a leader, and most of the ILA staff don’t respect him. Kozuch is a yes-man. Shortly after becoming executive director of ILA, Wayne asked him for millions from the ILA budget to keep the NRA afloat. Kozuch complied, and his newly hired ILA Finance Director quit after the first week due to discomfort. This wasn’t the first time the NRA asked ILA for millions, and Kozuch complies every time. King Charles, Bill Brewer, and Arulanandam don’t respect Kozuch; he is just the perfect puppet to help pay off Brewer’s excessive bills.

The other executives are equally ineffective. Tyler Schropp, the highest-paid executive at the NRA, can barely raise money without Wayne. Doug Hamlin operates entirely in the red and doesn’t know how to run an organization. Sonya Rowling is only in her position because she is a “whistleblower,” which looked good for the Brewer firm to show a course correction. However, she is inexperienced and would run the organization into the ground without realizing it.

Finally, the Brewer firm is the most ineffective and corrupt part of the NRA. Bill Brewer excels at one thing: losing. He flaunts the money he has taken, pulling up to the hotel this weekend in an Aston Martin while losing consistently. And he is Angus McQueen’s son-in-law. The NRA has funded the McQueen/Brewer family feud for too long, at the expense of our members who faithfully support us.

Board members, when is enough, enough? You are the only ones who can stop this. Charles Cotton is not fit for EVP. Andrew Arulanandam is not fit for EVP. No one at the NRA is currently fit for EVP. The Texas move is a waste of money and unnecessary. The Brewer firm is ripping the NRA off for every dollar we have. The NRA is failing. Revenue is failing, membership numbers are falling, ILA’s power is a fraction of what it used to be, and other training organizations are outpacing us. It is so bad that NRA is liquidating investments to continue paying Brewer. We beg you, as you go into the meeting tomorrow, to stop the bleeding and hold Charles Cotton, Andrew Arulanandam, and the other officers accountable.

Save the National Rifle Association of America.

UPDATE: I was just sent what is purported to be the official portrait of NRA President Charles Cotton which will hang in the NRA headquarters building in Fairfax or Texas if they ever move.

The Alternative Slate Of Officers For NRA Leadership

We currently don’t know who the Nominating Committee plans to put up as their slate of officers. From what I understand, they have and are meeting in Executive Session. I understand Rocky Marshall tried to attend and was refused entry. Regardless, they will present a slate of officers to the Board of Directors at their meeting at 9am CDT tomorrow in Dallas. More than likely, anyone who reads this blog who is not a member of the Cabal will not like the proposed slate.

Since I am one of those evil “gun bloggers” who Charles Cotton said “turned against the NRA” (sic), I take great pleasure in presenting a flyer from the alternative slate of candidates. They include Buz Mills, Bill Bachenberg, and Mark Vaughan. I might have liked to seen one of the Four for Reform included but I do realize that the first job is to have a slate that those in the middle can support.

All I can say is that if they keep their promises that it will be a great improvement over the current leadership.

Jim Wallace Elected 76th Director

Jim Wallace was elected as the 76th Director yesterday. His closest competitor was Joel Friedman who was the “official” candidate of leadership. This is further shows that reformers are gaining in strength as they coalesced to support Wallace.

By my count, a total of 740 votes were cast or approximately 1% of the total number who voted in the 2024 Board election.

The results:

The results of the in-person balloting have been received from our election auditing firm.

James L. Wallace has been elected by the members to a one-year term ending in 2025. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Wallace back to the Board.

The final vote tally is as follows:

  • James L. Wallace – 212
  • Joel Friedman – 142
  • Greer Johnson – 96
  • John C. Sigler – 87
  • Kim Rhode – 79
  • David A. Keene – 70
  • Antonio A. Hernandez – 28
  • Regina Roberts – 26

In another interesting development that I learned of this morning, Carl Rowan, Jr. resigned from the Board. His position will be filled by Joel Friedman who was the first runner-up in the 2024 Board election. Since the resignation came after the Meeting of Members, Friedman will only serve until the next Annual Meeting.

The NRA Meeting Of Members – Part 2

I have been sent a couple of videos taken from the Meeting of Members yesterday. Both are from the debate over moving NRA headquarters from Fairfax, Virginia to the Dallas, Texas area.

The first video is of Rob Pincus raising questions about the move including who authored the resolution. A friend who was there described Rob as being like a dog with a bone in forcing the admission that the resolution was drafted by 2nd VP David Coy.

The second video is by David Yamane who recorded the full debate on the move to Texas resolution. It runs for about 33 minutes but is well worth a look in order to get the feel for how Cotton and the Cabal lost control and the members plus reform-minded Directors took it.

It will be interesting to see if the reformers can translate this win into success on Monday in the Board meeting. Fingers crossed!