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Quote Of The Day

February 4, 2024 by 1 Comment

The quote of the day comes from the US Army’s Lt Col. Max Ferguson. He is writing in a Substack called the Harding Project. The goal of the Harding Project is to improve the writing of military officers and non-coms as well as to encourage them to submit articles to the various branch journals.

He wrote:

But writing is powerful. It’s the purest form of thought. The best briefing you never had to present because it’s all on the page for anyone to read at any time. Even years from now. 

Transposing Lt. Col. Ferguson’s thoughts from military writing to blogging I must say I appreciate this. Not to say that all blogging is a pure form of thought and that includes my own. Sometimes it is just ranting and raving or else you’d go nuts from keeping it inside.

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I Endorse Four For Reform

February 3, 2024 by 1 Comment

The NRA’s trial in New York has provided more than enough evidence that many members of the Board of Directors ignored their fiduciary duties. Many thought loyalty to Wayne was the same as loyalty to the organization. It was not.

The ballots for the 2024 Board election go out to eligible voters in the March issue of the NRA official magazines. Not only has the Nominations Committee stacked the ballot with retreads, they are the same people that allowed the rot and corruption to grow. They include people like former NRA President Carolyn Meadows who currently is considered too ill to testify either in person or virtually in the NY trial. It also includes 2nd VP David Coy who served on the Audit Committee for many years who voted to approve questionable expenditures after the fact.

There are four people on the ballot who were not put there by the Nominations Committee. Dennis Fusaro, Judge Phil Journey, Jeff Knox, and Rocky Marshall are on the ballot by petition. In other words, enough of you who are voting members said you wanted them on the ballot. They are untainted by the corruption of the past and are running on a platform of reform. I wholeheartedly endorse all four and would urge you to give them your votes.

The only two current Board members I might consider voting for are Buz Mills and Rick Ector. As evidenced by his letter to the Board exposing the backdoor shenanigans to make Charles Cotton the next EVP, Buz is not a go-along to get-along sort of guy. Rick Ector had done phenomenal grassroots work in the Detroit area introducing thousands of women to self-defense through firearms training. He also bucked the trend with his endorsement of Wade Callender for the EVP.

If it were me, I would not consider anyone else on the list of candidates. The four petition candidates plus the two that have bucked the system are the only candidates that I think will work day in and day out to restore and reform the NRA. We need an effective and untainted NRA. Now is the time to do it.

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Quote Of The Day

February 2, 2024 by

While I have been following the NRA’s trial in New York, I have been holding off writing about it until the New York Attorney General’s Office has rested their case. Based upon what I have read, that appears to be this coming Monday, February 5th. There is a lot there and I want to make sense of it all before tendering my complete opinion.

That said, the quote of the day comes from Stephen Gutowski of The Reload. It involves the testimony of NRA Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer.

Stephen wrote:

In it, the NRA’s top lawyer defended his integrity. When asked if LaPierre had breached his trust when he failed to disclose his now-admitted use of NRA funds for personal expenses, Frazer said he wouldn’t characterize it that way.

“I think Mr. LaPierre has always been very open and honest with me in terms of communications that we would have and then trying to rectify the issues,” he said.

But, when asked if LaPierre breached the trust of NRA members, he took an agonized pause before responding.

“I’d have to say probably yes,” Frazer testified.

LaPierre walked slowly out of the courtroom–and the NRA–on that note.

While I am glad that Mr. Frazer is finally recognizing that Wayne LaPierre breached the trust of the NRA members, it is sad that Frazer is only now coming out and saying it. His fiduciary duty which included a duty of loyalty was to the organization which means the members and not to Wayne LaPierre. He is not alone in that breach of fiduciary duty. There are many members of the Board of Directors who likewise breached their duty in their loyalty to Wayne instead of the members. Whether it was due to ignorance or a willful choice, it really doesn’t matter.

The victim in this trial has never been the state of New York. It has always been the members of the NRA who paid their dues and donated what they could to the organization because they believed in the mission. In return, they were used as the personal piggy banks to support the avaricious lifestyles of the Millies, the Waynes, the Susans, and those of their ilk.

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SCI Convention – “Writing For Hunters”

February 1, 2024 by

The Safari Club International Convention kicked off today in Nashville, Tennessee. Along with the vendors, the auctions, and the entertainment, the convention features educational seminars on topics ranging from traveling with a firearm to how to write for hunters.

John Geiger, Managing Editor of Safari Magazine, and author Craig Boddington presented a “how-to” seminar on what you need to do to get published in SCI’s Safari Magazine. It is the editorial policy of Safari to publish stories from SCI members alongside those by professional outdoor writers. Indeed, they want these stories of members’ adventures whether it is hunting for Cape buffalo in Zimbabwe or waiting for a whitetail to appear below a tree stand in Alabama. They even pay a $25 honorarium to the author.

The editors are looking for complete stories which present adventure and emotion that are accompanied by great photos. They want to know about the challenges you faced, the exotic food you ate, and the differences you saw on the trip between home and this location. The story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning might be the most exciting part of your adventure while while the end could be a reflection on this exciting part. The middle should provide the details of this trip or hunt. If you had a PH or outfitter, mention them. Just make sure to spell their name correctly.

As to the nuts and bolts, Geiger said it is important to use proper grammar and correct spelling. Along with a good dictionary, he said to use the AP Style Book as a reference. A SCI Publications Style Guide is available from him by sending a request for it by email to jgeiger@scifirstforhunters.org. A feature story might be as long as 2,000 words accompanied by 20-30 good photos. They prefer MS Word for the manuscript while the photos should be in high resolution (avg. size is 1.5 MB). JPGs are fine. If your camera allows you to take photos in RAW format, use it. You should send in the accompanying JPGs but keep the RAW file in case the photo editors needs to make any correction. Geiger emphasized that they do not want retouched photos.

Boddington took over the seminar from this point. He noted that writing might be a skill, a knack, or a talent but everyone does it differently. The point is to see what works for you. Being a reader helps as it exposes you to different writing styles. He said one of the most helpful books he found on writing was Stephen King’s On Writing (commission earned). King suggested that after you’ve written that first draft, go back and cut it by 10%.

Here are some of the suggestions for how to write and photograph the story from Boddington.

  • Include the “hero shot”, i.e., you with the trophy animal.
  • Include the rifle in the photo.
  • Start with the high point.
  • Alternatively, a diary format may sometimes work.
  • Jack O’Connor’s books and stories included details on everything you needed to go on that hunt.
  • Take notes!
  • Have place names and spell them correctly.
  • Get the names of all on the hunt including the trackers. Spell their names correctly and get the last names if possible.
  • Focus story on the hunt for one animal and not the whole safari.

Boddington had some more suggestions regarding the photography that needs to illustrate the story.

  • Include the skyline if possible in the trophy shot. “It makes antlers look good!”
  • Change angles. Take a variety from straight on, from the side, and from a low angle.
  • Take the trophy shot both with and without the firearm.
  • Do a “walk-up” shot as if you are approaching the downed animal.
  • Clean up your mess as much as possible. Clean blood off the animal.
  • Keep the animals tongue out of the photo.
  • Imagine how a non-hunter will view your photo.
  • Pay attention to little stuff. For example, if your state requires blaze orange, be wearing it in the trophy shot.
  • If you have lost the light of day, you may need to wait until the next day to take the photo. Not ideal but it may be your only choice.
  • Scenery is good but add people to the photo. Instead of merely showing a canyon, have the hunter shown glassing the canyon.
  • Remember the one-third rule of photography.
  • Have action photos.
  • Show people in camp.
  • Do not retouch the photo. Let the photo editors do that.
  • Caption your photos when submitting them – who, what, when, and why.

I found this seminar valuable as it illustrated what the editors want, how to do it most effectively, and ways to do it right.

This seminar will be repeated on Friday at 10am with author, TV host, and hunter Jim Shockey.

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Marion Calls For A Search Committee To Replace Wayne

January 29, 2024 by 2 Comments

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard that Marion Hammer was agreeing with Buz Mills regarding setting up a search committee to find the permanent Executive Vice President and CEO for the NRA. I had assumed – wrongly it seems – that she was in the camp pushing Charles Cotton to be the EVP/CEO for the next few years. Something along the lines of “a steady hand on the rudder” as the NRA transitions away from the Wayne era.

This is her email sent to the Board today:

It has come to my attention that another NRA BOD Member is making phone calls trying to gain support for yet another NRA BOD Member to take Wayne’s job.

Please, please, stop and think about this.  I personally believe we need a dedicated Search Committee to find someone who is actually qualified to take the helm at NRA.  

Any member of the Board who thinks he or she is qualified for the position can submit his or her name to a Search Committee to be vetted along with other candidates.

This is a turning point for NRA and a time when we need the most qualified, dedicated person we can find to lead NRA and lead the fight to save Second Amendment rights.

The NRA President can appoint a Search Committee at any time and I believe should do so immediately.  Search Committee members can be confirmed or rejected and replaced by the Board of Directors at it’s next meeting.

Please, this is a critical point for us and the future of NRA and it’s members is in our hands.  Let’s do it right.  Under our By-Laws we have a process to fill the EVP position on an interim basis while we search for the right person.

Please do not be stampeded into anything.

I know that there are a significant number of Board Members who agree that we need a Search Committee because they have told me so.  And, I also know that previously another Board Member has emailed you suggesting a Search Committee.  And while that particular Board Member and I rarely ever agree on what’s best for NRA, this time we happen to agree that we need a Search Committee.

Marion P. Hammer

Marion’s letter may also be seen as a way to head off those who are supporting Wade Callender to be the EVP/CEO such as Texas AG Ken Paxton, Utah AG Sean Reyes, and board member Rick Ector. However, while it is probably not her intent, I do think it could work in his favor as an honest Search Committee would have to consider him a candidate.

I think the person most disappointed about this letter beyond Charles Cotton has to be Bill Brewer. I got the feeling that Brewer was hoping to maintain the cozy relationship between the leadership and himself so as to keep the money flowing to his firm.

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NC Wildlife Regulation Comments Due By January 30th

January 29, 2024 by

The public comment period on proposed changes to North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission regulations are due by 11:59pm on January 30th. The regulations include the 2024-2025 inland fishing, hunting, trapping, and game land regulations and other regulated activities (camping on gamelands, etc.).

They can be submitted online here using the online form or by email. If by email, please include your name, county, and state of residence. The email address is regulations@ncwildlife.org.

I have embedded a PDF of all the proposed regulation changes below.

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2024 SHOT Show Range Day

January 23, 2024 by

I attended Industry Day at the Range yesterday with my friends Mark and Ed. I, like most anyone who attended last year, was worried about the call for rain. Fortunately, it held off until late morning and even then wasn’t too bad. There was none of the wind, cold, and lightning that characterized Range Day last year.

This will be a quick post as I’m getting ready to head to the Sands Expo Center. I think this year will be characterized as, of all things, The Year of the Lever Action. Whether it was 1895s in .45-70 at Aero Precision or the new S&W Model 1854, we saw and shot a lot of lever actions at the range yesterday. Some were classic blued steel and wood while even more were Ceracote and polymer. I don’t have a favorite yet but I am leaning towards the Marlin 1894 in .357 Magnum. Ruger had released the .44 Magnum version in 2023 and now it is available in .357 Magnum/.38 Special.

One other quick note to add is that I was impressed by the ammunition from Sim-X. It is a lighter all-copper bullet that has much higher velocity than a lead-core bullet. That said, the felt recoil when shooting it in either 9mm or .45 ACP was distinctly less. This is something I would like to give a good test.

Now to the rest of Range Day and then Beretta Range Day courtesy of Classic Arms.

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Leaving For The SHOT Show Sunday

January 19, 2024 by 1 Comment

I fly out to Las Vegas on Sunday to attend the SHOT Show. Monday will be Industry Day at the Range. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is calling for rain. Ugh! It rained last year and I ended up with a nasty cold after Range Day.

I will be at the SHOT Show itself on Tuesday through Thursday. If there is a product or service that you would like me to check out, please let me know in the comments.

I do plan to attend the Governors’ Forum as well as the state Attorney Generals’ Forum. Both events are on Wednesday afternoon. I hope to get some good information from both of those events.

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Buz Mills’ Letter To The NRA Board

January 18, 2024 by 4 Comments

Owen “Buz” Mills is the owner of the renowned training facility Gunsite Academy and has been a member of the NRA Board of Directors for many years. He has called for change in the past and continues that with his letter to the NRA Board of Directors below. This letter was sent out yesterday and I do have permission to publish it. To put it bluntly, Mills pulls no punches in calling out the shenanigans of the Old Guard in pushing Charles Cotton as the next Executive VP and CEP of the NRA.

TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

So, now we are all looking towards New York and Justice Cohen’s courtroom. Our attention is diverted here while chicanery continues in Fairfax.

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is at a watershed moment in its 153rd year. Our leadership has admitted in courts and depositions to misappropriation of donor’s funds and unauthorized use of assets. They have admitted condoning the misuse of donor funds by others employed by the NRA. The leadership has for years abused their position and trust placed in them by our members and benefactors. The Board of Directors (BOD) is solely responsible for this victimization of the members.

Thanks to the New York Attorney General, we are halfway to fixing our organization, bringing the NRA  up to par with other non-profit special interest groups.

The judge will hold the victimizers responsible, and they will have to account for their deeds.

Meanwhile, in Fairfax the selected leadership is scheming to continue the abuse suffered over the last few decades instead of following the bylaws for the succession of the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer (EVP). The selected leadership wants a special election to install the enabler and facilitator of all the previous chicanery. None other than our duly selected President, he is the man more responsible than any other for permitting our selected leadership to rampantly run roughshod over our membership and benefactors.

As the chair of the Audit Committee for many years, Charles Cotton was responsible for holding our employees accountable and ensuring their conduct beyond reproach. Our chair and “moral compass” approved every single act of malfeasance brought to the committee for decades, multiple acts approved retroactively, months and years after the fact.

When restitution was mandated, a bonus was awarded the miscreants including enough money to pay the restitution. This bonus also included enough for the miscreant to have the cash to pay the taxes on his misappropriation. Talk about rewarding bad behavior!! 

Again, I emphasize, it was not miscreant’s money, and it was not the facilitator’s money! It was the MONEY OF OUR MEMBERS and the MONEY provided by the BENEVOLENCE OF OUR DONORS. There is something deeply wrong when you continually permit and encourage this serial abuse.

Also do not forget spearheading the deceit and lying to us about filing bankruptcy that the judge called “a fraud.”  The BOD was never advised we needed to file for bankruptcy, nor was it ever justified to the board. We read it in the papers.

As we violate the bylaws again – accepting, justifying, and participating in some kind of sham election to make the selected president our EVP.

Is the principal facilitator of the misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars (members and donors’ money) causing the hundreds of millions of dollars of legal fees (again members and donors’ money) really have any business with access to the treasury?

Does he have any right to represent any moral, honest person or organization?

NO!

The normal, conventional way this type of business is conducted:

  1. Select a search committee of business professionals from the BOD, selected from the floor by the BOD,
  2. Retain professional employment agencies to recruit, screen and interview potential candidates,
  3. Committee shall interview candidates,
  4. BOD meet and greet,
  5. BOD votes to select a candidate,
  6. Committee sets forth terms and conditions of employment contract.

Now we have a professional to run the business of a world-class organization, in accordance with applicable laws, customs and traditions. Oversight will be provided by a professional BOD congruent with the by-laws in effect prior to ceding all monetary responsibility to the EVP. (circa 2015)

Next we hire a celebrity “FACE” of the NRA as a spokesperson with no access to funds. Using a similar process as finding an EVP.

This is how a professional Board of Directors of a world class not-for-profit begins to heal itself.

We have an opportunity to carefully choose to correct the path we are on. We have the opportunity to recover all of the membership that has abandoned us over these issues (2 million members +/-). We have the opportunity to recover the trust of our most benevolent donors. We have an opportunity to recover the respect of our industry and of the American people. There is no downside to doing this correctly.

Let’s not squander this opportunity, we must move forward smartly and with all the courage of the champions of freedom.

Owen Buz Mills

Director

National Rifle Association of America

January 17, 2024

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Padding The NRA Ballot

January 17, 2024 by 3 Comments

When the NRA Nominations Committee first released their list of nominations for the 2024 Board of Directors election it had 28 names on it. As I noted at the time (Sept. 27th), 25 of those on the list were current board members with 23 having been nominated in 2021. The only three new persons nominated were Craig Haggard, Susannah Warner Kipke, and Gina Roberts.

Fast forward to early November when the complete ballot with the four petition candidates was released. I did not take notice of it at the time but the Nominations Committee had added another two nominees to go along with the four that were on the ballot by petition. I’ll attribute my oversight to being on vacation with family as well as being excited that all four petition candidates had made it.

The additions to the ballot were former NRA President Carolyn Meadows and Greer Johnson of Duluth, Georgia. Ms. Johnson, 72, is on the Board of Trustees of the NRA Foundation. I have been told she is or was a “Friend of Wayne”. Meadows and Johnson both have served as officers on the Board of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association in Georgia at the same time. Note that these two were added to the ballot before Wayne LaPierre resigned.

Adding more people to the list of nominees aka padding the ballot is meant to decrease the odds of one or more of the petition candidates being successful in their quest to be elected to the Board of Directors.

What makes this more egregious is that the Nominations Committee had to be aware that Mrs. Meadows’ health was an issue. Going back as far as the 2020 NRA Annual Meeting in Tucson, it was apparent from her video appearance that she was suffering from a neuro-muscular illness of some sort. More recently, she was supposed to be a witness in the NRA trial in New York City. Attorneys for the NRA informed the NY Attorney General’s Office in mid-December that her health might not allow her to testify in person at the trial. This was amended to both in person and virtually.

From the letter to the court by the Attorney General’s Office:

On January 5, 2024, the NRA finally provided a medical affidavit for Ms. Meadows. Ms. Meadows’ physician represents that she is unable to testify in person or virtually because of her health condition. Subject to a representation from NRA counsel that Ms. Meadows did not attend, in person or virtually, the January 2024 Board meeting, Plaintiff will use Ms. Meadows’ videotaped deposition in lieu of live testimony.

If Mrs. Meadows’ health is such that she cannot even testify virtually, how can she effectively serve on the NRA Board of Directors? The answer is she cannot and it is a disservice to the members of the NRA to even nominate her.