The National Rifle Association announced on October 30 that it is undergoing significant changes. NRA President Bachenberg talks about some of the changes and what members can expect.
The NRA reform or NRA 2.0 movement is in full swing. The 2024 election brought some so-called reform members to the Board of Directors, and in 2025, they swept the slate. With the upcoming 2026 election, it appears that NRA 2.0 will hold a supermajority after the votes are cast. The Association recognizes that it needs to adapt to survive, and significant changes are currently underway.
NRA President Bill Bachenberg said during an interview that “the board hadn’t been changed in over 40 years, or, I’ll just say decades in the way it operated, and there (were) some efficiencies.” Bachenberg further said, “We restructured how our meetings are run to some degree. We put accountability on all our committees. We changed or updated the responsibility statements. Every committee has a responsibility statement.”
The crux of Bachenberg’s message about how the Association is moving forward has everything to do with an energized board.
“The board is now running the organization where, years ago with Wayne, it was the other way around,” Bachenberg said. “Wayne ran the Association, and the board was cannon fodder. Today, the board has taken its fiduciary responsibility. It’s using the bylaws to do what we need to do, and it’s a new way.”
The National Rifle Association’s announcement says that “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.”
Some of the programming changes will come in the following ways:
- NRA Publications will be rebranded as NRA Media
- A chief operating officer will be hired for day-to-day operations
- The streamlining of divisions will occur
- A refocus on the core NRA programs will occur: training and education, competition, etc.
- NRA-ILA will be getting more funding for legal battles and lobbying
- Communications will be improved
- An app is being developed
“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,” The NRA said. “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.”
Unfortunately, due to the restructure, some furloughs will be occurring. Those announcements are coming on Friday, Oct. 31.
“It’s our duty to ensure the long-term strength of the Second Amendment and health of our critical organization,” Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin said in a statement. “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.”
The Association also stated that to further streamline operations, the membership, marketing, and advancement divisions will be merged into a single department. They say that they wish to “implement new, data-driven techniques to increase revenue.”
“The NRA is listening and anticipating our members’ needs,” NRA President Bill Bachenberg said in his prepared statement. “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 manage the day-to-day activities of the Association better. By knocking down the current vertical silo’s and creating cross-functional teams, there will be less duplication, stronger member services, and better communications.”
What will come from these changes, we’ll have to wait and see. With the leadership shakeup and streamlining of programs, the National Rifle Association will hopefully emerge as a stronger organization.
More on TTAG involving the NRA:
- Op-Ed By NRA-ILA Head Calls For Congress To Pass National Concealed Carry Reciprocity
- NRA, Other Second Amendment Groups Target NFA With Yet Another Lawsuit
- NRA Targets Florida Waiting Period Law
- NRA Lawsuit Targets Massachusetts AWB
Again?
What do you mean by “again?”
The NRA never went this far before. Time will tell if it’s truly going to be accountable. But I take this as a good sign. Especially with layoffs.
“Real change” only begins when the BoD votes to shrink itself from 76 to 14. Hell, I’d even settle for 24! If they do that and make in-person attendance mandatory for ALL board meetings, I would call that a good start.
Accountability begins at the top.
I still get errant calls from some old NRA gal. Quit at least 4 years ago & no plans to rejoin!
Still too many board members, club within the club. I didn’t renew this year.
I am a life member but I am more involved with the GOA.
Gee, the only useful thing the NRA did in the last few years was the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, making all of the United States a “shall issue” jurisdiction and protecting our rights under the Second Amendment as first class rights, not inferior to the rest of the Bill of Rights, and now they are getting ready for more action. And they need millions of voters, and they got them, to brush back some of the new bold infringements of the “Gun Safety” gangs.
Today’s article contains a lot of what I wanted to see out of the NRA.
Finally!
Now I want to (and need to) see the NRA’s name showing up in A LOT MORE fights on Capital Hill, as well as all 50 statehouses. Not every 5th or 8th article I read, but 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5.
The NRA needs to pitch a damned tent at the steps of Congress AND the Supreme Court, and needs to be in every proceeding that has even the slightest to do with the 2nd Amendment.
The NRA should be frickin’ EVERYWHERE, even showing up in town councils and gddamned school board and PTA meetings. They should be giving out free copies of the Bill of Rights, free T-Shirts, and free books regarding the laws of every state in the union.
In 18 months, I want the anti 2A chin-waggers on CNN and the others complaining that they’re sick of seeing the NRA everywhere and up in everybody’s shit.
It’s about time. Now we need follow-thru.
Now we need follow-thru.
This organization has spent most of the past 10 years unable to tell my dad and I apart and sending American Rifleman to my dad who canceled his membership in 2017 and then died last year. I had canceled my membership in 2016.
I still get that fucking magazine addressed to him. That’s even after I sent them a fucking official copy of his death certificate to try to get them to stop.
You don’t cut out the address section and leave them at work lounges to watch the entertainment drama?
I tried that sort of thing years ago. Someone comes along and takes it or trashes it pretty quick.
I thought things were going well and money and members were pouring back in. Are they running out of money?
Life member.
Until I’m convinced they changed ,they’re not getting a dime more.
It took almost a year after Wayne left, to take his name of the emails constantly asking for more money.
There just adding the NRA logo to other organizations. They are the ones who got bruin and the New York pistol Association decisions from the Supreme Court. The
NRA hasn’t done squat protect and defend the second amendment.
I became a NRA Life Member about 10 years ago and they will
never get another dime
from me! Not until every board member who didn’t immediately vote Wayne LaPiere (however it’s spelled) out when all his shenanigans first came to light. Plenty of other organizations out there who actually serve its members and donors interests.
If Trump is serious about national reciprocity than he should push congress to get this done before the midterm elections because after the elections the p-ower base may shift making it harder to pass.
Sheesh, a lot of whining in these comments. “NRA needs to change!” they said. “NRA announces sweeping changes” not enough, they say.
NRA nearly destroyed itself with corruption, but seems to be making the right moves to recreate itself. If you think we’re better off without a strong, capable NRA then you aren’t really for 2A rights, and are probably stupid too.
Other organizations, which also happen to be much more aggressive, have stepped into the breach in the NRA’s absence making the NRA, at best, rather redundant in the eyes of many.
Sorry bro, but the NRA stepped in it too deeply for too long and thumbed its nose at its own membership while doing it. That radicalized a lot of people and they’re probably not coming back, nor should they.
The NRA can’t even bring itself to shitpost on the web when it wins. It’s going to be viewed as having a bad record, being too old, too passive, too greedy, too cowardly, too wasteful, too Fuddy, too incompetent and, dare I say it, just generally too milquetoast.
That reputation will take many years of hard, consistent work to fix. I mean, FFS, at this point “NRA Certified Range Instructor” is basically a pejorative in the eyes of anyone under 60.
“Other organizations, which also happen to be much more aggressive, have stepped into the breach in the NRA’s absence making the NRA, at best, rather redundant in the eyes of many.”
And despite the “wins” that these other orgs try to splash across internet sites which generally hate the NRA, the anti gun states continue to pour it on and get worse as per 2A and I doubt anyone living in CA, NY, IL DE, MA, OR, WA, et al notices any change for the better. The small lawsuits appear to be victories, and I’d never short-change anyone’s defense of The Constitution, but there is little to actually be shown for the “aggressiveness” and activiry. And, of course, these “wins” are mostly being made possible by NRA-gained actual wins such as Bruen, Heller, McDonald, Vullo, etc, etc.
Anyone who believes it is still simple to either misappropriate/misuse NRA funds or that the organization is too chummy with antigun people, or wasting efforts, are getting their information from second-hand sources, or they are so biased that they would not believe reality if it bit them. Past mistakes have been atoned for and are ancient history in today’s fast world, the Board’s “old guard” a lot of keyboard warriors keep referring to are gone (with 2 more past presidents resigning last week), and there is really no reason to believe that the new organization will not represent Americans, members or not, well. What NRA does need is for past members to return and take up the fight in the trenches as they did pre-2017. There-in lies the area that all the other groups together will never be able to accomplish- rallying millions of Americans, nation-wide, and under a single banner, to show up and vote for their own freedom in the future.
(And what do you know? The “registration” area for posting was blank this time! Maybe TTAG has turned a corner, too. Congrats!)
I’d require some rather extreme “reforms” in order to renew my membership, reforms that most would call me “cruel” or “insane” for demanding.
“I’d require some rather extreme “reforms” in order to renew my membership, reforms that most would call me “cruel” or “insane” for demanding.”
So- name them, unless they are as I said above, completly without merit, biased beyond reason, or completely ignorant or stupid. I listen to anyone… Unless they are insane. I even listen to cruel…
Cut the friggin board down to about 1, ONE dozen, 12 members for a start.
Other than to agree with others who hate NRA and have never been on the board, let alone run, why?
Have you ever been the member of a real board of directors- one with assets in the millions of dollars? Not attempting to pick a fight- just wondering why people would want to shrink the BOD of a bona fide organization, dedicated to preserving a right that exists almost exclusively in the US, to a number that could easily be purchased by someone like Soros, or Bloomberg, etc.
And I see TTAG is once again filling in the names and emails for me again.
Call me skeptical. I’ll believe it if I see it. (and then I’ll still be suspicious).
The NRA has an 81 year history of being the largest and best funded anti-RKBA organization in the world. The corruption of the last few decades is not the only thing that the NRA needs to turn around from.
I would bet that the anti-gun fanatics in NY pressured the court to NOT disband the NRA but to let it ‘restructure’ because if the court had forced the NRA to disband about half the members would have ended up joining one of the organizations that are actually fighting for our rights (something the NRA has never done effectively at the national level) — can you imagine what it would be like if GOA, SAF, or FPC had half the money that NRA wastes every year?
Google NRA Beckett Brown International to see where $Millions of NRA Dues have been going!!!
“Communications will be improved
An app is being developed”
Now, they want your e-mail address. A wonderful tool for Asking For MORE! MONEY! While many of us no longer wait with baited breath for the next NRA Publication and while they are not the main draw for the organization, many gunnies reject the notion of digitalization and will not be thrilled with a deluge of e-mail ASKS hitting their inbox. ignoring/deleting them is at least more labor-intensive than ignoring the letters and phone calls asking for renewals a year in advance. It would be interesting to know if the FMG Pubs that folded their print publications are still getting subscribers.
The Anti-Gun Fund raiser grifters are dancing in the streets.
This is another poor choice by the board of directors. I don’t see much change since Wayne left. He should’ve been kicked out long ago . reduce the size of the board of directors to cut cost. I haven’t contributed to the NRA since they left camp Perry. Shooting programs made the NRA great. Now the NRA just hold onto the national trophies.. they do very little to service the members. Dropping the print magazine and going to a digital just shows how Keith has run it into the ground.. I have saved all my magazines since 1960. I don’t even care about them anymore.. I’m a benefactor member. This is just another disappointment.