2A White Rook

2A White Rook

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NRA & NIH: An Attempt At Constructive Criticism

Written by

Nicholas

in

This blog post will be emailed to everyone at NRA which I have an email address for. The reason I’m writing this openly, is three fold, first to prove the syndrome which is afflicting the NRA, the Not Invented Here Syndrome (NIH) is indeed afflicting it. Second to encourage NRA leadership to start treating NIH. And three to encourage 2A supporters, whether they are NRA members or not to examine and voice their opinions to the organizations with which they may be a member of.

For the record, I’m an NRA life member.

What is NIH? In a nutshell, resistance to outside ideas. This article, which was sent to me by a friend is very detailed, and describes real world examples and their consequences, and shows ways of treating NIH, all without being either a bore or too technical, https://www.hypeinnovation.com/blog/what-is-not-invented-here-syndrome

After reading that, if you’re wondering how any of that applies to the NRA, I’ll show specific examples. But first, it must be understood, that the NRA is a non profit corporation. Yes, corporation. It’s products are its services, which encompass everything from Second Amendment lobbying, to various levels of training, to hosting competitions, maintaining museums, and so forth. The leadership of NRA consists of a group of officers, a president, two vice presidents, an executive vice president- who handles day to day affairs, a secretary, treasurer, an executive director of NRA’s lobbying arm the ILA, an executive director of general operations, and at the moment, an acting chief compliance officer. Plus there’s a 76 member board of directors(elected by NRA members), plus 110 non director committee members which are not NRA member elected.

One thing should be noted, the NRA’s board of directors is massive. It cannot be overstated as to just how massive it is. For comparison, The average board size for Fortune 100 companies is 11.8 directors, https://www.nacdonline.org/all-governance/governance-resources/directorship-magazine/online-exclusives/2025/q2-2025/board-composition-strategic-asset/ Those numbers have proven to be a major contributor of NIH at NRA, which you shall see.

My first example is the board of directors, how does a member contact them? There’s a “procedure”, both for snail mail and email. I’ve never once spoken with anyone who’s gotten a reply back from the board of directors (BoD). I personally have been pushing for the email system to be fixed, as it is either in-operable, or non-existent. I along with several others have brought up the “portal” system idea, where all NRA members can login and have the opportunity to view the list of current directors and their committee assignments, and choose to write one director, several or the entire BoD. Upon submitting their message, they will see confirmation it was sent and received, and the director or directors can respond directly to the member.

That’s gone over like a ton of bricks, every time I’ve brought it up, and from what I’ve heard, others who’ve brought the idea up, have gotten similar responses. Cause? NIH.

Now someone may bring up the president’s email, [email protected], which was first made known in the September magazines. True. But, it’s only to the president, and not the BoD. And contrary to the president’s column in the October magazine, President Bachenberg has not replied to all emails. Also detailed in the October magazine is this, https://nrapresident.com/member-login/ where upon using my member ID number to login as required, I could not log in. So I have no idea as to what the president is sharing with members there, and I cannot submit my thoughts there, as promised by the president, in his column.

The above is also symptom of NIH. Why? Members want a way to contact the BoD. Members come up with an idea. What’s NRA leadership give them? A maybe kinda sorta not really way to contact the NRA president. This is an example of an outside idea being rejected, for an inside idea which isn’t what is needed nor wanted.

Another example is the upcoming Virginia governors race, which is barely more than a month away. Things are looking bad, for pro 2A candidates with polling there, especially the GOP nominee for governor. The NRA was given a plan, by a new director, Dennis Fusaro, detailed in the article here, https://www.ammoland.com/2025/09/without-coordination-money-and-boots-on-the-ground-virginia-will-be-lost-to-the-gun-prohibitionists/ In my view, it’s an excellent plan, and urgently needed. My attempts, both emailing, and messaging NRA leadership on X, urging them to approve his plan, have gone unanswered. One example, https://2awhiterook.com/email-to-nra-hq-foundation-about-fusaros-va-plan/ No responses from anyone.

So why is NRA not pursuing Fusaro’s plan? Without knowing any inside baseball, this is NIH. Fusaro’s a new director, this is his first term. His plan was submitted to NRA Foundation chairman Tom King who was an NRA director for a couple decades or more. He lost his re-election bid this spring, but is still chairman of the Foundation, which he has been for a number of years, perhaps a decade. Further, King is also the long time president of the NRA’s New York state association, the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association.

And instead of approving Fusaro’s plan, which I, and others have pushed NRA leadership to approve? This, a virtual meeting on Virginia elections, https://2awhiterook.com/nra-makes-ham-fisted-attempt-in-va/

NRA is once again offered an idea, it’s fair to call this an outside idea, and they reject it. And instead they come up with “The Economy Plan” as Codrea’s dubbed it, https://waronguns.com/the-economy-plan/ NIH.

Another example, is why haven’t 2A groups banded together to form their own version of the mystical 2A Task Force, minus the ‘mystical’ part? https://waronguns.com/the-impossible-dream-4/ Codrea presents a very simple way to get the various groups together and use their combined brains and muscle to advance our cause by voicing policy recommendations to the executive branch of the federal government. Yet it hasn’t happened, even in the age of the internet, and ZOOM and other methods of instant group communication.

Yesterday, I messaged every national 2A group, plus some “influencers”, Trump, Bondi, and more on X, a link to https://www.firearmsnews.com/editorial/trump-could-end-semi-auto-rifle-import-ban/536339 and asked them to encourage President Trump to sign an executive order, ending the 1989 semi auto rifle import ban. You can see the message here, https://2awhiterook.com/trump-with-e-o-can-end-semi-auto-rifle-import-ban-codrea/, thus far, no response, from NRA nor any other national 2A group. Why? Because it’s an outside idea.

In closing, with this blog post, NRA leadership will have been made aware that NRA is suffering from NIH, and its causes, symptoms, and cures. NRA leadership will also have been made aware of real symptoms of NIH at NRA and the consequences of ignoring those symptoms. NRA leadership can now either change the way it runs things (start treatments to cure NIH) or, it can reject this too, since this blog post, was NOT INVENTED HERE.

Equip, train, pray and never disarm.

Update, https://2awhiterook.com/another-symptom-of-nih-at-nra/

Update, https://2awhiterook.com/the-economy-plan-nih-nra/

Comments

2 responses to “NRA & NIH: An Attempt At Constructive Criticism”

  1. henrybowman Avatar
    henrybowman

    NIH pervades the NRA. Ten years ago, their Training Department entirely replaced their traditional courses with a new, online “Blended Learning” offering. They solicited NO input from trainers in the field (many of whom were volunteers, the rest of whom were largely independent shops, infinitesimally few of whom drew paychecks of any form from the NRA), and rebuffed all the unsolicited critical input they received. The new offering:

    1) Invalidated all stockpiled courseware that instructors had already paid for;
    2) Required all new students to start their training INDEPENDENTLY online by contacting and paying $60 directly to the NRA, thereby significantly raising the effective price of a completed course;
    3) Left instructors to commence live fire training immediately upon meeting students whom they had had no opportunity to get to know, or to evaluate (and occasionally disqualify) during classroom work;
    4) Discontinued all their First Steps courses, in which a student becomes fully qualified on the single model firearm he already owns within a single day — one of the most popular offerings requested of many instructors — because a one-day course did not fit the “blended learning” model;
    5) Destroyed the offerings of organizations such as Massachusetts’ AWARE, an educational charity that teaches fee-free courses to women at risk (as the basic $60 charge to NRA could not be avoided, and without an NRA certificate, the graduates would not qualify in most cities and towns for a purchase permit).

    Despite widespread currents of disapproval from the field, the Training Department jammed its new curriculum down the throats of its independent trainers. A good percentage reacted simply by ceasing to teach NRA courses and letting their credentials expire; instead, offering their services to 4H and Scouting, or offering various non-NRA alternatives to the general public.

    Within a year, the Training Department could no longer pretend to themselves that their new money-grab model was anything other than an abject failure, threatening their entire mission. They re-introduced the traditional classroom courses as being “available in parallel” with the online courses that no one really wanted. But by that time, their instructor base had dwindled to only a small fraction of the volunteer men and women that they boasted in 2015, and I do not believe it has ever recovered.

    This — and not the LaPierre circus — was what forced me to let my membership of several decades expire: if I could no longer serve my students, there was no point in renewing.

    Reply
    1. Nicholas Avatar
      Nicholas

      Such a disaster, all around. Thanks for providing details on the training angle.

      Reply

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