Author’s Note: This is one part of a two-part series on the upcoming 2025 NRA Board of Directors election. In writing this, I’ve tried to give equal exposure to both camps in message, word count, and number of people whose opinions were represented. Due to a glut of information, some prospective candidates or board members who responded towards the end of the editorial process were told their contributions were not needed due to spatial constraints. As an NRA Benefactor Life Member, I want to see a strong and viable NRA. Please be sure to read my coverage of the opposing camp: NRA Board Election Face Off: ‘Old Guard’ Incumbents, Strong NRA.

“The NRA shall adopt a Director Nomination Policy [...] such that the Nominating Committee shall then endeavor to identify up to 20 additional candidates who [...are considered] ‘New Qualified Candidates,’” was a portion of the December 11, 2024 order in People of N.Y. et.al. v. The National Rifle Association, et.al. The annual NRA board of directors elections are going to be changing. There have been contentious races in the last few years and this year is no different. A cadre of board members and board candidates self-describe as “Reformers.” While there’s a list of incumbents who self-describe as “Strong NRA,” and are being labeled a so-called “Cabal.”

The December 11 order identifies 13 specific actions the NRA must take in the coming years. Both the NRA and New York Attorney General Letitia James have claimed victory after the final judgment. The list of requirements has a lot to do with transparency for the members as well as serving board members.

Not so quietly over the years a group of members, board members, and those eying a seat at the board of directors’ table, have assembled to speak out against the actions of other board members and employees of the NRA. These folks have come together and galvanized as the Reform Candidates.

Who are and what do the Reform Candidates believe in?

We are NRA members running for the 2025 Board of Directors and we are ready to meet the challenges facing us head-on and secure the future of the NRA. We are  concerned about the status quo of the organization and the internal issues impacting our mission. Membership has been demanding a change and we are ready, willing, and able to make that change.

We believe the governing of the NRA should be based on integrity and transparency. We are dedicated to the fight and challenges that lie ahead, and we are committed. We are here to serve the members. To do that though, we need your help. You MUST VOTE!
…
Who are we?

On this website, you can see who each candidate is, where we came from, and what we stand for. We want to restore the trust and faith of the NRA members because the NRA exists for its members. We will continue to fight for the 2nd Amendment and bring the NRA back to its mission of creating and supporting shooting programs, competitive shooting, and furthering firearm safety and education. Our goal is to bring the NRA back to the Mission and Core Values that made it the great organization it once was.

What are we asking?

We are asking you to VOTE in this upcoming election.  Make your choice by completely filling in the circle next to the name with a pen or pencil. Two are Write-In candidates: Charlie Brown of Dayton, OH, and Paul Babaz of Atlanta, GA. Please clearly write in their full name, city, and state on the reverse side of the ballot. They were denied the opportunity to have their names printed on the ballot. These 28 candidates support the Mission and Core Values of NRA 2.0. So, please mail it in before the deadline of  April 6, 2025.

We will fight for you and the NRA!

But without your support and VOTE, we can't win that fight. Thank you in advance for your VOTE!

There’s extensive biographical information on most of the Reform Candidates on the website https://electanewnra.com/. The group consists of 28 current or prospective NRA board members. Also self-referring as “NRA 2.0,” the Reformers have pegged who they are saying are part of a Cabal.

The incumbent directors being called a Cabal, 16 in total, have self-identified as “Strong NRA,” taking the URL https://strongnra.com/. They can be considered part of the Old Guard.

For the 2025 ballot, the Reform Candidates noted the following:

The number one objection from potential donors and members coming back is NRA’s relationship with the Brewer firm and the SLC (Special Litigation Committee).

Not only has Brewer drained us millions dollars in legal costs, these lawsuits have likely cost us approximately millions more in lost revenue, prestige and power.

Now with the conclusion of the NY AG case, and many board level fights to git rid of a 3 person board controlling millions of dollars of expenditures, again we state that the SLC no longer is needed.

The NRA’s General Counsel’s Office and the Legal Affairs Committee can handle any outstanding issues and not being billed up to $1,400 per hour by Brewer.

It’s time to dissolve the SLC for the good of the organization, and these people VOTED to keep it. Keep the spending, keep the financial drain to the NRA.

The members that NRA 2.0 said should not be reelected are: Bob Barr, Sharon Callan, Lawrence Finder, Jeff Fleetham, Tom King, Charles Rowe, Ronald L. Schmeits, John C. Sigler, Blaine Wade, Larry E. Craig, Isaac Demarest, Steven W. Dulan, Carol Frampton, Joel Friedman, Sandra S. Froman, Kim Rhode, Danny Stowers, and Dwight D. Van Horn.

Four Reform candidates/board members and six Old Guard incumbents were asked to weigh in on the election. Some of the questions asked were answered directly while others were not. All the questions asked are at the end of this report. Three candidates from each side of this debate, six in total, have been included in these reports.

All participants were asked to exercise brevity in their responses.

Anthony Colandro is a Reformer currently seated on the board and who is up for reelection. “For the past five years there has been turmoil at NRA as we fought multiple lawsuits as well as internal chess moves for self-preservation for some,” Colandro said of the state of the NRA.

Reformers were asked, “You've come together with a group of people who agree with the direction you want to see the NRA go in, isn't this risky? Aren't you afraid of being blackballed or exiled?”

“This is very risky, the last five years I have been on the board I have only served on less important committees and witnessed the shunning when you spoke out,” Colandro said about potential backlash. “You were immediately stripped of all your committees and put on a shelf. We now, I believe, have the team post-NY AG lawsuit to take it all back and right the ship.”

“Most of the Cabal served on finance, audit, and executive committees. What a shock,” Colandro said when asked what makes the old guard a Cabal. He said that those members “continually voted against transparency and members’ interest. The time is now to start anew.”

“Look, I bleed the NRA and when I was elected to the board I had all these aspirations for working to improve and modernize our NRA, but since my initial election victory it has been nothing but the Cabal trying to maintain the status quo,” Colandro explained when he was asked why he should be reelected. “We are at the precipice, I believe, to kick some ass.”

Theresa Inacker is a Reform Candidate who ran via petition. She gathered the required signatures in order to get on the ballot. “The membership has lost faith in the organization. I am concerned with internal issues of the organization impacting the mission. Change comes through transparency and integrity,” Inacker said about the need for reform.

When it comes to blackballing and being exiled, something Colandro said was a reality and was alluded to in a communication string mentioned in the Strong NRA coverage of the election, Inacker said she’s not concerned with that. It’s her prerogative to continue to work for the Second Amendment.

“I rarely, if ever, see these people advocating for true 2A principles on social media or in lawsuits,” Inacker said of the old guard. “Some of these board members have been in the fight for 30-50 years, but they have lost their focus, and are only seeing things from a view that has not changed in that many years. The world is changing. Anti-gunners are using new tools and technology to attack us and they are writing their rebuttals to it on a manual typewriter.”

Inacker added, “Unfortunately, people who enabled what was happening with Wayne LaPierre are still there and resisting change. But Membership has been demanding a change. We are answering that call.” Inacker further stated that one of the reasons the old guard is being pegged as a Cabal is because “They voted to maintain the special litigation committee.”

“I am a true Second Amendment advocate, volunteering for more than a decade at the state level. It’s time for new blood on the BOD, those with a true heart for 2A,” is what Inacker said when asked, “why you?” She closed by stating, “ I’d like to see the NRA work better with state-level groups who are doing the lion’s share of 2A work in states like mine that are under attack.”

John Richardson is a vocal Reform candidate and also the publisher/author of the blog Only Guns and Money. Richardson has been following the alleged turmoil at the NRA for years and has even tried to be an active participant in what reformations he thought would be appropriate.

“The NRA has lost approximately 2 million members in recent years,” Richardson opened when asked about the need for reform. “We need to give those former members and millions more a real reason to come back to the NRA to fight for our Second Amendment rights, to promote the shooting sports including both competition and hunting, and to provide the valuable firearms education for the millions of new gun owners.”

When asked about the potential for blackballing, Richardson was not nonplussed by the proposition.

“The only risk is in not coming together to work for reform and change,” Richardson said. “Standing united we have a better chance of achieving our goal of a reformed NRA – NRA 2.0 – which puts members first and does it with integrity, accountability, and most of all transparency. As for being black balled or exiled, the fight for our firearms rights and the Second Amendment is bigger than one single organization.”

There’s clearly some semantical conversations going on between the two different camps. Richardson weighed in on why the incumbents are a Cabal in his opinion.

When I started writing about them, I referred to them as the “Old Guard” or “Friends of Wayne.” Over time, I switched over to referring to them as a Cabal as they worked in concert to protect the grifters such as Wayne LaPierre and to punish anyone who strayed from their party line. Too many of the Cabal forgot that their fiduciary duty of loyalty was to the NRA and its mission and not to Wayne.

Richardson got very detailed when he was asked “What things have you seen that the specific Cabal members have done that makes you have the stance you have?” His response was as follows:

I proposed resolutions at the 2020 and 2022 Meeting of Members intended to address serious questions including a succession plan for the EVP during the pandemic and the need for repairs to the HQ building. Joel Friedman was one of the first to speak against succession planning. Regarding repairs to the HQ, one board member after another said it would be addressed and there was no need to report back to members on it. Then there is how committee assignments, even this year were made, until Judge Cohen forced the issue with his interim and final order. The majority of the assignments to the most important committees were given to insiders who would resist reform and change.

Before signing off, Richardson shared his sentiments on why he should be elected to the NRA BOD:

Before you can fix something, you ought to know what the problems are. I have been studying and writing about the issues facing the NRA since the Annual Meeting of 2019. I have served on both governmental and nonprofit boards for many years. I understand the importance of fiduciary duties from both that service and from my career as a Certified Financial Planner™ where I served in a fiduciary capacity for over 25 years. In addition to a Masters in Project Management, I have taught finance, financial planning, and risk management at the university level.

There are two prevailing camps of candidates that are running for NRA Board of Directors. In the foreseeable future, this division will probably remain. The Reformers, aka “NRA 2.0,” publicly point out failings that were brought to light in the New York case, and wish to ameliorate those failings for the members. The Strong NRA, aka “Old Guard,” maintains, as Bob Barr said, the NRA has been subjected to “weaponized governmental offices” attacking them via “politically motivated lawsuits.”

Somewhere within the pages of these campaigns, the many documents of the N.Y. lawsuit and the final order, and through the comments of the candidates is the truth. NRA members have a decision to make in 2025 that’s going to have an effect on how the organization is going to continue to run and will perhaps have a very lasting consequence.

Do you vote for Reform? Or, do you vote for the Old Guard?

The choice is up to you! One important favor that eligible voting members – really all members – of the NRA can do for themselves is read the final judgment in the New York case. It’s a piece of the puzzle. What did the court have to say? What does that mean to you? And, what does it mean in regard to what the candidates had to say?

Questions posed to the Old Guard:

1 - Why reelect you for NRA BOD?
2 - What's with these Cabal allegations? From your perspective,  what does that mean? Is there any weight to that?
4 - What do you see to be the biggest problems, if any, with the NRA today?
5 - What do you see for the future and how are you going to contribute to making it brighter for the organization and the membership?
6 - Are you in favor of the former motions to move the NRA headquarters? 

Questions posed to Reformers:

1 - Why reform?
2 - You've come together with a group of people who agree with the direction you want to see the NRA go in, isn't this risky? Aren't you afraid of being blackballed or exiled?
3 - "Cabal" is a strong word. The "reformers" list off several board members who members should not vote for. What makes them a Cabal?
4 - What things have you seen that the specific Cabal members have done that makes you have the stance you have?
5 - Why you? Why you on the NRA board?