The strength of the NRA is, and has always been, our membership. Without our millions of members, we would not be able to effectively rally behind elections for pro-freedom politicians; just as importantly, if not for our large membership, our representatives in office would not feel the same urgency to listen to us in this constitutional republic.
This is the biggest reason why I so often ask NRA members to renew or upgrade their memberships at membership.nra.org. Strength in numbers is critical to the protection and expansion of our Second Amendment rights.
I experienced this firsthand recently in a meeting with U.S. Senate leadership. I was asked to speak on your behalf about how we can continue to show our strength in numbers at the polls and in our advocacy efforts at the federal, state and grassroots levels to protect our right to keep and bear arms.
On this note, your NRA’s new leadership is taking this responsibility so seriously that we have recently made difficult and principled decisions in order to deliver a balanced budget for 2025. We are working to better serve you and to advance the multifaceted fight for our freedom.
One manifestation of this work will be on display this month at the NRA Great American Outdoor Show (greatamericanoutdoorshow.org)
in Harrisburg, Pa., Feb. 7-15. Country star Tucker Wetmore and special guest Larry Fleet will be performing. Nine halls filled with guns, archery equipment and more will be on display. Outdoor celebrities will give seminars, and more than 400 outfitters will be selling adventures of a lifetime. There will be archery competitions, dog “big air” competitions, live fishing demonstrations in a huge tank and so much more.
This is an unapologetic celebration of our values and way of life. This coming together of tens of thousands of freedom-cherishing individuals also helps us raise funds to support all we’re doing legislatively and in the courts at this critical time.
On Jan. 20, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to hear Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s gun-carry restrictions on private property—a decision in this case should come by June. This case stems from the NRA’s landmark victory in NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022), which confirmed that all Americans have a right to carry firearms in public. After that big win for freedom, a number of states passed bans on carrying concealed on private property that is open to the public unless a store or other business has signage up expressly telling citizens they can carry. The Second Circuit struck down this part of New York’s gun-control restrictions, and the Third Circuit struck down New Jersey’s in an NRA-backed case, but the Ninth Circuit upheld Hawaii’s law. When the challengers to Hawaii’s law petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, the NRA filed an amicus brief urging the Court to grant the petition, and the Court accepted the case.
We are, meanwhile, still advocating for national reciprocity so that law-abiding armed citizens can travel with their freedom intact to all areas of the nation, including those that have historically discriminated against nonresident concealed carriers. The difficulty for this legislation has long been reaching the 60-vote threshold in the U.S. Senate to overcome a filibuster from senators who want to take away this constitutionally protected freedom altogether. But we are not giving up.
Indeed, after the NRA advocated for freeing Americans from the burdensome restrictions and fees in the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) in the One Big Beautiful Bill, the $200 tax was removed (it expired Jan. 1) with President Donald Trump’s (R) signature last July 4. This opened up the NFA to a direct legal challenge from the NRA, along with other groups, challenging the constitutionality of the law.
As the $200 excise tax has been eliminated, the joint complaint alleges that the NFA registration regime is no longer justifiable as an exercise of Congress’s taxing power. Indeed, without the tax, the NFA’s registration regime for suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns stands alone as an example of congressional overreach, in addition to being a violation of the Second Amendment. The registration scheme additionally fails the U.S. Supreme Courts’s Bruen test, as it is not consistent with our nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation dating back to the Founding Era.
To put it simply, the U.S. Constitution grants Congress only limited powers—none of which authorize the registration of privately owned firearms; in fact, as we hope the courts will recognize in our case, the Second Amendment forbids it. This infringement of individual rights has gone on for far too long.
By staying bold and standing straight and, with your help, increasing the strength inherent in our membership, we can continue to celebrate our freedom, to defend it and, where necessary, to expand it. Our competitions are growing; we are refocusing on Friends of the NRA dinners and other events; and the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits (NRAAM.org) will be in Houston from April 16-19 this year. We are NRA strong!
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