Opinion
Who would have thought a corrupt and racist New York Attorney General would have been the agent used by divine providence to effect the reform of the National Rifle Association?
Neal Knox and his reformers nearly succeeded in taking over the NRA in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War is a collection of writings by Neal, edited by his son Chris. The goal of Neal Knox and his organization was to make the NRA management and finances more transparent and to focus the NRA on being more effective politically. Those efforts were stymied by the “old guard” wielding power inside the NRA. It has been alleged that the insiders saw the primary role of the NRA as a money-raising machine to line their pockets.
NRA salaries and perks multiplied after the Knox reformers lost against NRA insiders. The insiders controlled the NRA magazines and the nominating committee for the Board of Directors.
After Neil Knox’s tragic death in 2005, his son, Jeff Knox, continued to operate the Knox organization with attempts to reform the NRA and to bring transparency to the NRA finances.
Corrupt New York AG Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the NRA in 2020. The purpose of the lawsuit was to dissolve the NRA.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” said Attorney General James. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.”
Letitia James failed in her attempt to destroy the NRA. Instead, the oversight of the New York court was enough to allow reform candidates to be elected to the board of directors. Jeff Knox and reform candidates for the board won overwhelming support and four board seats in the 2024 NRA annual election. The four reformers received some of the highest vote totals.
With the pressure and oversight of the New York court, the NRA reform group was able to put forward a nearly complete slate of reform candidates for the 2025 annual election. Ordinarily, 25 of 75 members of the board are up for election each year. Because of the loss of some board members, 30 seats were available in 2025. The reformers won 20 of the 30 seats. They now have about 40 of 75 board members. It should be enough to enact the significant reforms to start rebuilding the NRA. The numbers are not exactly precise because some existing board members joined the Reform group during this difficult time. Jeff Knox shows a good breakdown of how the vote turned out.
When I reached the Georgia World Congress Center on April 25, old friends lobbied me to vote for Charles T. Hiltunin III to fill the 76th director slot, which is chosen by NRA voters at the annual meeting.
Hiltunin, a reformer, was actively campaigning, as was Tom King, considered a member of the “old guard.” I was pleasantly surprised to see the voting conducted well with a secret ballot and checking voting eligibility. Few votes were cast in the race, considering the attendees numbered about 70,000. Hiltunin won with 389 votes to King’s 194 votes, out of a total of 824 votes. 241 votes were scattered among 15 other candidates.
The overall tone of the membership at the 2025 annual meeting of the NRA was optimistic. It seemed the members’ voices were being heard, in a real way, for the first time in decades. This correspondent noted that women were roughly 25% of the attendees, with about 5% children. Significant numbers of minority groups were present.
Analysis:
The National Rifle Association has duties and responsibilities to manage national matches and target shooting programs. It has the most extensive firearms training programs in the country. It is the hope of this correspondent that the never-ending push of fundraising will be toned down to a reasonable level. At some point, this correspondent put funding requests in the trash without reading them.
Because of disgust with how the internal affairs of the NRA were being managed, this correspondent stopped sending them money after the attempt at reform by Neal Knox failed. The current reform effort appears to be succeeding. It is doubtful that Letitia James ever thought her attempt to destroy the NRA would be the seed of NRA reform and rejuvenation.
NRA Board Election Results 2025: What Happened & What it Means for the Membership
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
