Categories
All About Guns

A Closer Look at the 2025 NRA Officers Election By John Petrolino

AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File

The 2025 National Rifle Association Annual Meeting was a big one for the organization. After the membership meeting wrapped up–with a number of noteworthy happenings occurring there–the newly installed board met on Monday April 28. The election of officers did not go lock-step with what the nominating committee wished, and the so-called “reformers” managed to sweep the slate, taking control of most of the organization.

Over the last two years, the NRA Board of Directors has cleaved off into essentially two parties, with a few directors remaining unaffiliated. Previously reported, the 2025 election of board members overwhelmingly favored one party over the other.

One group self-identifies as “Strong NRA,” and is made up of what’s colloquially called the “old guard.” The other group labels themselves “NRA 2.0,” and they’re referred to as “reformers.” NRA 2.0 has alleged that the Strong NRA is made up of a Cabal of loyalists of former NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

NRA 2.0 took 66% of the available seats in the recent board election, a near supermajority of the spots. Strong NRA took the remaining 34%.

There were no incumbent directors or nominated candidates elected or reelected who were unaffiliated.

The Nominating Committee made the recommendation that Bob Barr continue to serve as president and have First Vice President Bachenberg replaced by Second Vice President Mark Vaughan, with Eb Wilkinson to take the second vice president spot.

The committee recommended keeping incumbents Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin, Secretary John Frazer, Treasurer Sonya Rowling, and Chief Compliance Officer Mensinger.

It was recently reported by Cam Edwards that the NRA 2.0 party took control at Monday’s board meeting, with them securing top leadership positions. Incumbent Strong NRA President Bob Barr was challenged by NRA First Vice President Bill Bachenberg–a proponent of reform.

As discussed in an interview with Edwards prior to the officers election, Bachenberg stated his intention to challenge Barr. Traditionally–on a handshake–officers would normally serve two years in a given position and then bump up the line. It can be speculated that Bachenberg’s challenge to Barr is what resulted in the Nominating Committee’s suggestion to remove him from the line.

Ultimately, Bachenberg secured a win over Barr, with the top three officer positions being secured by reform-minded directors. These results were reported officially by the NRA.

“I am deeply honored to be entrusted by my colleagues on the Board to serve as President of the NRA,” NRA President Bill Bachenberg said in a statement. “We are at a pivotal point in our Association’s history as we work to reach out to new members, build upon the trust of existing members, and provide the gold-standard programs that American gun owners expect. As the Nation’s oldest civil rights organization, the NRA plays a critical role in protecting and advancing freedom in America.”

The final numbers are in. A request was made to board Secretary John Frazer to return the official tally, as well as the results of the committee appointments/elections. NRA spokesperson Nick Perrine delivered the election results to Bearing Arms in fulfillment of that request.

The report noted that Bill Bachenberg secured the president’s seat. The vote tally was 38 for Bachenberg and 34 for Barr, for a total of 72 votes. Bachenberg’s win comes where a 4.2% swing could have resulted in a loss. He took 53% of the votes, enough to secure more than a simple majority.

Three votes could have changed this election.

The following officers–including the executive vice president–were elected “by acclamation”: First Vice President Mark Vaughan, Second Vice President Rocky Marshall, Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin, Treasurer Sonya Rowling, and Chief Compliance Officer Robert Mensinger.

Incumbent Secretary John Frazer won with 38 votes, over Bryant Lewis who took 32 votes.

The following committees were also formalized and or had members added to them:

Executive Committee: Thomas Arvas, Bob Barr, Charles Beers III, Anthony Colandro, Todd Ellis, Al Hammond, Craig Haggard, Maria Heil, Charles Hiltunen, Robert Mansell, Buz Mills, Janet Nyce, James Porter II, David Raney, Barbara Rumpel, Amanda Suffecool, Craig Swartz, Linda Walker, Bruce Widener, and Robert Wos.

**Note: The President, First Vice President, and Second Vice President also serve on the Executive Committee.

Nominating Committee: Cam Edwards, Al Hammond, Maria Heil, Robben Love, Mitzy McCorvey, Buz Mills, Janet Nyce, Susan Springhorn, and Robert Wos.

Audit Committee: Charles Beers III, Jonathan Goldstein, Theresa Inacker, Rocky Marshall, and John Richardson

Special Contribution Fund (Whittington Center) (terms ending in 2028): Al Hammond, Robert Mansell, Barbara Rumpel, and Craig Swartz.

The 2025 NRAAM is now in the rearview. NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Doug Hamlin celebrated the conclusion of what he said was a “very successful” meeting.

“I know one thing for sure: NRA’s best days are ahead of us,” said Hamlin. “This Association is moving forward, full speed ahead, to support the shooting sports, train new gun owners, and defend the sacred right to self-defense. I thank the dedicated staff of the NRA who work day and night on behalf of NRA’s millions of members and America’s more than 100 million firearms owners.”

The decisive win that NRA 2.0 saw in the board election prior to the NRAAM seems to have paid off for the reform candidates, gaining them more ground within the Association. While the members spoke loudly and clearly in who they wanted to take a director’s chair, how big is their hold now within the ranks?

With a new makeup of directors, a shakeup within the officers’ line, and the formulation of reform-minded committees, it’s time for the BOD to get to work. The majority of the Association’s legal problems are behind them–with some exceptions. The voices of the members have been communicated to the board, and everyone will have to see who listens and who does not.

According to the NRA, the 2026 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits will take place in Houston, Texas, from April 17-19, 2026.

The complete list of election results as sent by Spokesperson Perrine is below:

President
Bill Bachenberg – 38
Bob Barr – 34

First Vice President
Mark Vaughan (by acclamation)

Second Vice President
Rocky Marshall (by acclamation)

Executive Vice President
Doug Hamlin (by acclamation)

Secretary
John Frazer – 38
Bryant Lewis- 32

Treasurer
Sonya Rowling (by acclamation)

Chief Compliance Officer
Robert Mensinger (by acclamation)

Executive Committee
Thomas Arvas
Bob Barr
Charles Beers III
Anthony Colandro
Todd Ellis
Al Hammond
Craig Haggard
Maria Heil
Charles Hiltunen
Robert Mansell
Buz Mills
Janet Nyce
James Porter II
David Raney
Barbara Rumpel
Amanda Suffecool
Craig Swartz
Linda Walker
Bruce Widener
Robert Wos
**Note: The President, First Vice President, and Second Vice President also serve on the Executive Committee.

Nominating Committee
Cam Edwards
Al Hammond
Maria Heil
Robben Love
Mitzy McCorvey
Buz Mills
Janet Nyce
Susan Springhorn
Robert Wos

Audit Committee
Charles Beers III
Jonathan Goldstein
Theresa Inacker
Rocky Marshall
John Richardson

Special Contribution Fund (Whittington Center) (terms ending in 2028)
Al Hammond
Robert Mansell
Barbara Rumpel
Craig Swartz

Categories
Hard Nosed Folks Both Good & Bad Leadership of the highest kind Manly Stuff Real men Stand & Deliver

Vince Coleman: The Spontaneous Hero Written By Will Dabbs, MD

Vince Coleman was just a normal guy, right up until
he was called upon to do some very abnormal things.

 

On the morning of December 6, 1917, the French munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc sat fully laden with a cargo of TNT, picric acid and guncotton in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship also had a load of highly volatile benzol stored in barrels lashed to the deck. The vessel was desperately trying to leave the harbor to transport its critical cargo to the World War I battlefields in Europe.

German submarines were a menace, and the Canadian government had erected sub nets across the mouth of the harbor. The nets were closed at night. Extricating from the busy harbor during the limited periods of daylight this time of year was a complex and difficult task. At the same time as the Mont-Blanc was making its exit, a Norwegian cargo vessel called the SS Imo was also transiting the channel.

This was a really crowded place. Ships ranging from ocean-going freighters to local tugs puttered back and forth, jockeying for position. Larger vessels were helmed by experienced local pilots who were well familiar with the harbor and its eccentricities. However, at 0845 that morning, the Imo struck the Mont-Blanc a scant glancing blow. The collision speed was estimated at one knot. That’s only 1.15 miles per hour.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, was a thriving seaport before a horrible maritime accident in 1917 blew the place to pieces.

Damage to both ships was trivial. However, the shock was adequate to tip several drums of benzol. These broke open and spilled volatile liquid across the deck. The benzol ran down into the bowels of the ship until it encountered an errant spark. The subsequent fire soon raged out of control.

The captain of the Mont-Blanc ordered his crew off of the ship. The now-empty vessel drifted slowly until it beached itself at Pier 6 near Richmond Street in Halifax. Curious onlookers flocked outside to take in the spectacle. Several nearby vessels responded to the fire, spraying the stricken ship with water. However, there was no hope.

While the image of the burning ship was mesmerizing for countless hundreds of bystanders, a few among them appreciated the true gravity of the situation. Among them was Vince Coleman, a 45-year-old train dispatcher for Canadian Government Railways (CGR).

The area in the immediate vicinity of the blast was leveled.

The effects of the detonation were felt for miles around.

Coleman and the Chief Clerk William Lovett were working in the Richmond Station, only a few hundred feet from Pier 6 where the Mont-Blanc now rested beached and aflame.

A sailor raced up from the pier and warned the two men that the Mont-Blanc was a munitions ship and that the risk of an imminent explosion was profound. Coleman had time to run. However, the No. 10 overnight express train from Saint John, New Brunswick, was due into the station in 10 minutes. There were 300 passengers onboard.

Lovett called the CGR terminal agent to report the danger, and both men fled. However, Coleman appreciated that this phone call was likely inadequate to stop the incoming passenger train.

As a result, he turned around and ran back into the station. He subsequently banged out the following message along the rail line to stop all trains heading into Halifax, “Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour marking for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye, boys.”

At 0904, the fire reached the cargo hold on the Mont-Blanc. The subsequent blast wave propagated out from the ship at 3,300 feet per second. The core temperature of the ship reached 9,000 degrees F. The explosive force was the equivalent of a 2.9 kiloton nuclear detonation. At the time, the Mont-Blanc blast was the largest single man-made explosion in human history.

This picture was taken moments after the Mont-Blanc
exploded and leveled the Halifax harbor.

The explosion destroyed everything within an 800-meter radius. The blast wave leveled buildings, sheared trees off at the ground, twisted iron railroad rails, and pushed nearby ships up onto dry land. The resulting tsunami propagated across the harbor and wiped out the community of Mi’kmaq people who lived in nearby Tufts Cove.

As a result of the catastrophe, 1,782 people perished. Among them were both Vince Coleman and William Lovett. There were a further 9,000 injured. However, thanks to Coleman’s desperate telegraph message, the No. 10 passenger train was successfully stopped at Rockingham Station roughly four miles short of the terminal and Pier 6. The conductor of the No. 10 later attested that it was Coleman’s telegraph that stopped the train in the nick of time. As a result, 300 passengers and crew survived.

We all want to be remembered as heroes. The archetype dons blue spandex and flies off to do battle with digital monsters.

Out here in the real world, however, heroes are not nearly so flashy. Sometimes, they are train dispatchers just going about their day. Normal folk, when faced with abnormal circumstances, are often capable of stepping up to perform amazing feats of courage. Vince Coleman was one of those rare heroes.

Categories
This great Nation & Its People

It’s not the age, it’s the mileage.

Categories
All About Guns

Snub Nose Colt SAA

Categories
All About Guns Allies Soldiering

Sir Evelyn Wood – Victoria Cross Recipient Trampled By A Giraffe

Categories
All About Guns You have to be kidding, right!?!

Air Force Flinches on Arming Recruits with Working Guns …Again by Tred Law

Opinion

U.S. Air Force Basic Military Training trainees carry weapons at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on August 2, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Ava Leone)

Well, here we go again. The United States Air Force had a brief moment of clarity—just a moment—when it looked like they might start treating their own recruits like real warfighters by letting them carry actual M4 rifles during basic training.

But predictably, that moment passed faster than a Beltway politician dodging accountability.

According to the Air Force’s top brass, arming trainees with real, live-fire-capable rifles throughout boot camp is just too hard. Too many “logistical challenges,” they say. Too much responsibility. Heaven forbid young Americans who sign up to wear the uniform actually handle the tools of war early on—tools they’ll be expected to be intimately familiar with when the real fight starts.

Instead, they’re sticking with glorified toys: inert M4s that look real, feel real, but don’t go bang. Maj. Gen. Wolfe Davidson, who oversees the whole training pipeline, confirmed they’re not moving forward with real rifles “in the near term.” You know what that means—it’s code for never, unless they get forced into it by reality.

Let’s be clear: The Marines do it. The Army does it. Hell, even most ROTC programs give their kids more trigger time. But the Air Force? Nope. They’re convinced a red-plastic-tipped dummy gun is enough to create a “warfighter mindset.”

And that’s the problem.

We’ve got high-ranking Air Force officials saying we’re on the brink of a near-peer war with China or Russia.

We’ve got high-ranking Air Force officials saying we’re on the brink of a near-peer war with China or Russia. They’re right. The next war won’t be fought from cushy air-conditioned offices—it’ll be brutal, ugly, and real. But if you believe that, and you still won’t arm the next generation of Airmen with anything more than a cosplay rifle, you’re not preparing for war. You’re playing pretend.

Security concerns? Too many weapons to store? Not enough instructors? Guess what—none of that stopped our grandfathers from winning WWII. They figured it out with clipboards, paper maps, and grit. But now, in the era of biometric locks and digital armories, the world’s most advanced Air Force can’t figure out how to responsibly issue a basic firearm to a grown adult?

Meanwhile, here’s what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had to say just three months ago in his Message to the Force:

“We will remain the strongest and most lethal force in the world… All of this will be done with a focus on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards, and readiness.”

So let’s ask the obvious: how exactly does marching around with a red-tipped plastic toy gun meet the Secretary’s call for lethality? How does locking a non-functioning rifle in a dorm room locker restore the warrior ethos?

It doesn’t.

This is what happens when political correctness meets the profession of arms. Instead of sharpening the spear, the Air Force dulled it—again.

Sure, they still make the recruits look like they’re carrying rifles. They march them around with fake M4s, let them break them down—oh wait, you can’t—and then practice holding them. It’s like handing someone a rubber knife and calling them a chef.

You can’t fake warfighting. And you sure as hell can’t fake the Second Amendment. That right—the one to keep and bear arms—isn’t just a civilian right. It’s a warrior’s foundation. If the Air Force can’t trust its own people with real rifles in basic training, maybe it shouldn’t be trusted to send them into combat either.

We’re raising a generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to fight enemies who are armed to the teeth and trained from childhood. And instead of meeting that threat with strength, we’re stuffing red and blue plastic into warrior’s M4 barrels and calling it a day.

Lock and load, America. Because the people in charge of defending this country still think the scariest thing in a barracks is a loaded rifle.

About Tred Law

Tred Law is your everyday patriot with a deep love for this country and a no-compromise approach to the Second Amendment. He does not write articles for Ammoland every week, but when he does write, it is usually about liberals Fing with his right to keep and bear arms.

Categories
A Victory! This great Nation & Its People War

Shermans vs Panthers: How Patton’s Third Army Crushed Hitler’s Best Panzers at Arracourt?

Categories
Art

A picture of the Ancient Middle East by Steve Noon

Categories
Uncategorized

The KSG-12: John Wick’s Bullpup Shotgun

Categories
All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Gun Fearing Wussies

FPC Trashes DOJ’s “Horrifically Flawed” Brief In Machine Gun Ban Appeal by Mark Chesnut

A brief filed by the federal government in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case involving the constitutionality of banning machine guns has one pro-gun rights group seeing red.

The case United States v. Justin Bryce Brown revolves around the federal government charging Justice Bryce Brown with knowingly possessing a machine gun in violation of federal law. Brown’s attorney argued that under the landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the statute was unconstitutional as applied to him.

A district court dismissed the charge against Brown in January, holding that the ban violated the Second Amendment as it applied to him. The government then appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

A brief filed April 24 by Patrick Lemon, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, argued that “machine guns are not the kind of arms protected by the Second Amendment,” and that America’s “history of regulating dangerous and unusual weapons confirms [the federal machine gun ban’s] constitutionality.” The brief drew quick condemnation from the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), which called the brief both “horribly flawed” and “insanely offensive.”

One portion of the brief that really set the gun-rights group off was when Lemon cited The Trace, a rabidly anti-gun instrument of Michael Bloomberg’s so-called Everytown for Gun Safety, as his source of information.

“Acting U.S. Attorney Lemon’s horrifically flawed brief is unprincipled and an incredible affront to the People and our constitutionally protected rights,”  Brandon Combs, FPC president, said in a press release about the brief. “Not only does this lemon of a brief expressly advance anti-liberty arguments, it went so far as to cite the radically anti-Second Amendment Everytown propaganda publication, The Trace, in support of its position. This brief could not be less consistent with President Trump’s ‘Protecting Second Amendment Rights’ executive order.”

Since President Trump’s executive order on protecting the Second Amendment does matter—or at least it should to Lemon—Combs said the brief should prompt the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into Lemon’s ability to respect the executive order. After all, the U.S. Attorney filed the poorly thought-out brief on behalf of the federal government, which Trump heads.

“This insanely offensive brief should never have been filed in any court, let alone at the Fifth Circuit,” Combs continued. “It should be immediately withdrawn and thrown into the trash, along with Mr. Lemon’s ability to make these filings in the future.”

Combs added that the Lemon filing is a prime example of why the organization has been asking President Trump to appoint a competent Second Amendment czar to coordinate the administration’s agenda across the government and with stakeholders in Second Amendment litigation.

“Our rights must be protected at all costs and the American people are counting on President Trump and Attorney General Bondi to fulfill their promise to do just that,” he concluded.