I recently classified Expert in Carry Optics at my local IDPA classifier. I had hoped to classify Master. In practice I was capable and commonly shot to a master level. When it came time to actually perform, I made two errors. I fumbled a reload on the very first string and I was short one round in my magazine on the last string. Whatever hope I had of recovering from the first string magazine fumble was gone after the “mike.”

Reforming the National Rifle Association has been a similar tale for many of us. The moment that we have the opportunity to make systemic, positive change it hasn’t gone the way we had hoped. The difference is that with the NRA… the failed leadership is entrenched, undefeated, and has a mountain of resources, that is about to change for the better or worse.

Right now the vast majority of NRA member dues and donations are being spent to keep Wayne LaPierre and his cabal out of jail. With the NRA solvent (able to pay bills and more) they will not be saving any money along the way. Certainly, their regime will spend every last cent in the NRA’s coffers if there is a chance they can avoid jail. Their secondary objective is to maintain control (as we saw with the Chief Restructuring Officer proposal). 

Those of us working on the NRA’s plight are fatigued. Most who were hoping to see the NRA reformed were introduced to this after placing hope in individuals such as Adam Kraut, Pete Brownell, Duane Liptak, Frank Tait, or (most recently) Phillip Journey. These people, and many more, have not let us down. Instead, the wrongdoers have been able to prevail time and time again. LaPierre, Meadows, Cotton, Lee, Hammer, King and more have accomplished what we all hoped to prevent: the obliteration of the NRA. 

It will not be a single individual who saves the NRA, and if the NRA is to be saved you (us) are the only one(s) who can do it.

Along the way, many have given up. They just want the NRA to die already. The LaPierre regime managed to excel at that waste, even giving millions of dollars, and control of the NRA legal representation to an attorney with a long history of donating to anti-rights politicians like Hillary and Beto O’Rouke. The fatigue that we experience is hard to overcome, especially when it has been a decades-long battle, but we absolutely must persevere  and overcome because…

Over one hundred million dollars in cash and assets that should have gone to the real fight for our rights have been wasted, and many millions more will not only be wasted but potentially go to our opposition if we are apathetic.

If the NRA is liquidated (by dissolution or chapter 7 bankruptcy), it could be that anti-gun groups become the recipients of the NRA’s assets, especially in a New York state court. Everytown, Brady, Soros, Bloomberg and more would love to inherit the NRA’s assets after seeing the NRA burned to the ground. That would be the most incredible victory for them, and no doubt something that they desperately desire. 

Fatigue or not, we must do everything in our ability to salvage the NRA if it can be saved. I can’t do it alone and neither can you. We need to come together. We need to not merely say we are Second Amendment supporters, we need to be Second Amendment supporters. Our last chance to make any sort of reform could be this Labor Day weekend in Houston. The NRA Members’ Meeting is where we can make our last stand. 

Please, help us get every single pissed-off NRA member to attend. Please join me. This is one pinnacle effort that might send millions of dollars and assets to the fight… or at least out of the hands of anti-rights groups. Join me. Help Save the Second.

I helped found Save the Second so that we could reform the NRA and thus have a much better shot at truly saving the Second Amendment. Join me at the NRA Members’ Meeting on Saturday September 4th. The NRA Annual Meetings and exhibits run from Friday, September 3rd – Sunday, September 5th at the George Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. This is a reload we cannot afford to fumble. I hope to see you there.

Ron Carter
Save the Second