The reformers on the National Rifle Association’s Board of Directors went for broke in yesterday’s Board of Directors meeting. They also went hours longer than anyone ever imagined possible.

The reform movement lost one key slot, but won three others.

One observer told me to think of it like baseball, not football. In a 162-game season, averages count.

“In baseball,” I was reminded, “reform would be batting .750 -that’s Hall of Fame numbers by any measure.”

Apparentlyl, every item on the lengthy agenda was far closer than in the past. Hopefully, that means the days of the “unanimous vote” -a hallmark of the LaPierre era- is, like WLP, a fading memory.

The failed reform move would have made longtime reform-minded Board Member Owen “Buz” Mills the President of the NRA. Instead, a 37-30 vote went against Mills and in favor of old-guard choice Bob Barr.

That vote demonstrated, once again, that despite assurances they were all ready to “do the right thing” Board members who have historically chosen not to oppose the old guard, did so again. What’s especially cringeworthy is that Mills, a historically straight-shooter, was attacked personally.

The other new officers selected were the following:

First Vice President - Bill Bachenberger

Second Vice President - Mark Vaughn

Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin (the current head of NRA Publications)

With the exception of Barr, the winners were decidedly not the choices of the formerly automatically rubber stamped nominating committee. Their choices for the other slots, including Ronnie Barrett for Executive Vice President, were all defeated.

So there may be a small glimmer of light at the end of what is still a very long, very dark tunnel.

What lies ahead for the NRA lies something between (continued) irrelevancy and bankruptcy. This bankruptcy, however, won’t be a Brewer-designed shenanigan designed to avoid New York courtrooms.

This NRA bankruptcy could actually mean insolvency, if not liquidation.

Ultimately, one simple question remains: does the NRA even have a future?

With the last act of NRA’s acting EVP Andrew Andrulanadam having been apparently issuing written instructions for the NRA to scrape up the few funds remaining in their depleted bank accounts and send them to the Brewer Firm, there’s serious concern the NRA will even be able to make their reduced payroll in a few days.

Which brings up the future of a group that has largely been ignored throughout the continued power struggle inside the organization: the loyal employees.

They have toiled on, despite pay cuts, benefit reductions and ever shrinking resources. Even with reform measures, their futures are uncertain, at best.

Many are acquaintances. A few, friends. Because of those friendships, I’ve never asked them for their opinions on what was happening inside the NRA. Even for reporters, friendships have- and observe- boundaries.

Those boundaries apparently moved yesterday.

A note was sent - anonymously - to the NRA Board of Directors (and a few others), purportedly by “current and former” NRA employees.

While I didn’t try to confirm an author, I did get necessary confirmation that it was, indeed, legitimate.

Their note sums up the NRA situation better than any outside observation.

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 deterioriation 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 self-inflicted. Yes, AG James has had a gun pointed at the NRA from the start of her campaign, but NRA’ leadership continues to hand her magazines with ammunition.

The staff likely won’t be happy with the news that one of their “poor leaders,” Doug Hamlin, is now the Executive Vice President/CEO. And “wins” by the“old guard” would appear to validate the concerns regarding “certain retaliation from NRA executives and the Brewer firm.”

That’s not really a conjecture on my part. The NRA has already been found to have retaliated against employees and former Board Members in the past. The only conjecture there would be any action by the Brewer firm. If there’s no more money, there’s likely no more Brewer, either.

Hamlin didn’t waste any time after he was elected EVP, re-appointing Randy Kozuch as the Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) and appointed Joe De Bergalis, Jr. as the Executive Director of General Operations.

De Bergalis, a former NRA Board Member, was formerly the Executive Director of General Operations before being inexplicably fired by Wayne LaPierre, who placed Andrew Arulanadam in the acting EVP slot.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

— Jim Shepherd