The NRA, many industry exhibitors, and tens of thousands of NRA members and gun aficionados will gather in Houston today for the NRA’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits. Outside of SHOT Show, this is the largest firearms show in the country with a wide swath of manufacturers showcasing their latest products—often in booths only slightly smaller than those seen in Las Vegas in January.
This year is the 155th annual NRA conclave—just without the fancy robes and hats. But not unlike what happens in Rome, many will be looking for their own version of the white smoke as an indication that the organization is truly back on track.
If you’ve been living under a rock, you may have missed the fact that the NRA hasn’t been living its best life in recent years. It went through a bit of a messy divorce, if you will, culminating in its longtime Executive Vice President stepping down in January of 2024, just ahead of a civil corruption trial.
Like I said, messy.
In the wake of Wayne LaPierre’s departure from the top of the nation’s most powerful pro-Second Amendment organization, the 76-member NRA Board of Directors underwent massive changes. What was once largely a rubber stamp body—members enjoying the perks of board service in exchange for toeing the EVP’s line—has suddenly found new life.
In 2025, a slate of reformers was sworn in to the NRA Board, immediately changing the vibe of the body. No longer was it just a well-rehearsed chorus of yes-men and -women. The Board shifted away from its passive role. Reform-minded voices have emerged with members willing to ask questions instead of simply voting yes.
Their impact was immediate, and it needed to be. The NRA was facing a perfect storm of legal troubles, a waning membership, and a torrent of legal bills that some saw as needlessly decimating the organization’s once-rich coffers.
The NRA has turned a corner, but hasn’t returned to its former status as an 800-pound gorilla on Capitol Hill. Yes, the NRA still has teeth and members—including would-be members—of Congress still seek its endorsement and support. But during the height of its internal leadership struggles, a void was opened in the 2A political and legal landscape.
On the Hill, as well as in state houses, the National Shooting Sports Foundation picked up some of the slack as the industry invested heavily in its own government relations capabilities.
In the courts, the Second Amendment Foundation was taking on every 2A court case it could, along with the Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of America, National Association for Gun Rights and, frequently, NSSF.
The NRA wasn’t absent from these arenas, but it wasn’t leading them either. Its reduced membership, reflected in a dwindling number of annual renewals that provide the NRA with critical cash, weakened both the organization and its effectiveness.
This year, the NRA returns to Houston. The last time we were there, in 2022, the show was marked by an almost embarrassing number of empty booths and reduced foot traffic. This year it will be a different story. Most notable will be the overwhelming election of yet another slate of reform-minded candidates.
As one current board member told me last week, the election gives the reformers a supermajority, ensuring that anything they want to get passed will get passed, assuming they vote as a bloc. And almost as important, they can stop anything they want.
There are a number of inside baseball issues the newly-seated Board will take up in Houston, many of which NRA reformer Jeff Knox outlined in a recent Ammoland piece. Structural changes are critical, especially for an NRA reemerging from an incredible morass of its own making, but their impact won’t be immediate. As Jim Shepherd reminded me, large institutions, like aircraft carriers, take time to turn.
I’m hoping to see real movement in the NRA’s Competitions Division. Getting more members out on the range, and growing the membership through competition would be a great place to start. And actually getting the America’s Rifle Challenge, which was originally introduced back in 2014, fully up and running on something akin to eight cylinders instead of perpetually up on blocks would be an even better start.
Either that or have it hauled off to the junkyard…assuming you can’t find a better mechanic.