The National Rifle Association held its 155th Annual Meeting in Houston this past weekend, along with three days of Board and committee meetings.
As an NRA Board member, I flew out to Houston on Wednesday for committee meetings on Thursday and Friday, then the Members’ Meeting on Saturday morning, and the Board meeting on Monday. Between meetings, I spent as much time as I could in the exhibit hall looking at the latest and greatest offerings from the industry, the amazing historical displays, and especially talking with exhibitors and attendees about their impressions of the show and the NRA in general.
The show was great, and the mood was definitely upbeat. While not quite as big as the shows of a few years ago, we had a very good turnout of around 73,000 people in attendance over the three days – a few thousand more than last year’s event, I think. I expect to get official numbers in a day or two, including what appear to be very good reports on new and upgraded NRA memberships through the weekend. From my observations, I was very pleased with the turnout and the positive attitudes among the attendees and the exhibitors.
News on the NRA story was positive as well. The Board continues to work hard to bring the NRA back – to restore member trust, to get the finances straightened out, and to make sure we’re on the right course with strong safeguards in place to ensure good governance and fiduciary responsibility.
The Bylaw amendment I discussed in my last column, reorganizing the Board’s Executive Committee into something more like a “governance committee,” passed with minor, positive changes. Under this new structure, the Executive Committee has a total of 9 members, including the President, First Vice President, Second Vice President, and the Chairs of the Finance, Audit, Legal Affairs, and Membership committees, along with 4 additional members who meet specific qualifications, elected by the Board.
This newly restructured Executive Committee is empowered to meet – mostly electronically – much more frequently than the full, 76-member Board, and exercise many of the powers of the Board, though we included a long list of things the Executive Committee is not authorized to do on its own.
Importantly, we included a requirement that all members of the Board of Directors be notified of all Executive Committee meetings and be able to attend or monitor them. We also included term limits for members of the Executive Committee other than the three officers, who typically rotate through the chairs on a two-year schedule. For the others, we set the bar at 6 consecutive years. This might require some tweaking going forward to deal with questions of how long they must sit out before regaining eligibility – if ever – but I think this is a good baseline.
Another important, and related, Bylaw amendment we passed allows for the Board to meet electronically in between our three regular meetings, or possibly in place of a regular meeting. This was needed to ensure we – the full Board – could reasonably assemble on short notice and at little expense, in case the Executive Committee ever strays from the straight and narrow and needs to be reined in by the Board. An additional Bylaw amendment I intend to push at our September meeting would lower the threshold for calling an emergency meeting of the Board from the current standard of 50%+1, down to something more like 30%, just to make it easier for a group of Directors to do so if needed.
The Executive Committee restructuring proposal, along with an amendment regarding handling legal action against the Association from a member, were put out to the members present at the Annual Meeting of Members on Saturday. This was unprecedented in modern NRA history and was well received by the members, though I wish there had been more members in attendance.
That legal proposal, in simple terms, requires that any dispute between an NRA member and the Association be resolved through arbitration rather than in court. Some discussion of this proposal has been published here on AmmoLand recently, raising all sorts of questions regarding member rights. My take on this is that it is a simple necessity in this day and age of aggressive lawfare and zealous attorneys. Arbitration is much less expensive for all parties concerned and provides for a fair hearing of issues without the expense, extended risks, and delays of going to court. This type of provision is standard in nonprofits and the corporate world, and it protects the NRA from becoming the victim of a lawsuit mill.
In the Board meeting, we reelected our entire leadership team. Bill Bachenberg was reelected as President for a second year, which will be his last, as the President is limited to only two one-year terms. We also cleaned up the Bylaws language regarding presidential term limits, providing a formal mechanism for overriding the limit, only by a 3/4ths vote of the Board, where it has been done by a simple majority in the past.
We fixed some other language in the Bylaws, such as removing the “Order of Business” for meetings. It was a superfluous repetition of Roberts’ Rules of Order, which, per the Bylaws, guide our association’s meetings. There was some argument about this change, but I think that was based on the conflation of “Order of Business” with an “Agenda.” The “Order of Business” is an outline, set by Roberts’ Rules, while the “Agenda” is the outline filled in with specific topics, usually set by the President, which is then adopted – or amended – by the body at the beginning of the meeting, and can be deviated from on a 3/4ths vote of the body during a meeting. I should also mention that Secretary John Frazer has announced his intention to step down, but has agreed to stay on while a search is conducted for a suitable replacement.
The final topic to report from the Board meeting was an amendment to remove “mail” and related words from the rules regarding elections. The objective with this was to “neutralize” the language of the Bylaws, to allow for voting and elections by other means, if we ever find something that would work. This is not part of any move to electronic balloting or online voting. There is currently no plan to move in that direction, but we do recognize that it’s a possibility for some time in the future, as such a move would save the Association hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Again, though, there is currently no move in that direction, and if we ever do start contemplating something like that seriously, there would, by necessity, be a lot of public discussion and a long transition period.
Regarding term limits, I let it be known at this meeting that I hope this will be my last year on the Board. When I ran and was elected, I expected to spend most of my first 3-year term voting with an upraised middle finger as the Board steamrolled past me. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at my first Board meeting in 2024 to find fully half of the Board ready to partner with me on reforming the Association. I never could have imagined we would move so far so fast.
At this point, I believe we have the NRA ship turned around and on a good course, with solid leaders in the wheelhouse. I think Mark Keefe, the head of NRA Media, nailed it when someone asked him why he thought I would be considering not running again. His answer was: “No more windmills.”
I sought a seat on the NRA Board to help right the ship and save an organization that I love and our country needs. I won’t say “Mission Accomplished,” but I believe I’ve had a positive impact and moved things in the right direction, and I’m confident that with a little more fuel – members and money – Doug Hamlin, our Executive Vice President, and his staff, along with the ever-improving Board, will keep the Association on track and serving our members.
While I try not to reply to comments on these articles, I do endeavor to read the comments and am always interested in hearing what you have to say, so please share your thoughts.
As Doug Hamlin is fond of saying: Full steam ahead!
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a dedicated political activist and the director of The Firearms Coalition, following in the footsteps of his father, Neal Knox. In 2024, Jeff was elected to the NRA Board of Directors, underscoring his lifelong commitment to protecting the Second Amendment. The Knox family has played a pivotal role in the ongoing struggle for gun rights, a legacy documented in the book Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War, authored by Jeff’s brother, Chris Knox.
Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, The Firearms Coalition is a network of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs, and civil rights organizations. The Coalition supports grassroots efforts by providing education, analysis of current issues, and a historical perspective on the gun rights movement. For more information, visit www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
