Can the NRA have an office of the executive vice president and chief executive officer?
Strange sounding question, and I’m sure the three readers of this blog, (me, myself and I) are thinking, ‘What a dumb question!’. Well I thought it was dumb too… At first.
Just prior to the NRA “townhall”, I read a piece written by David Codrea of https://waronguns.com/ about questions he hoped would be answered by EVP/CEO Doug Hamlin at the “townhall”. Read for yourself, https://www.ammoland.com/2025/06/nra-townhall-to-give-members-chance-to-question-ceo-hamlin/
Codrea’s first set of questions weren’t anything out of the ordinary for anyone who keeps up on the NRA, I think they all greatly deserve answers and are pretty standard and sadly, were not answered. But, it’s his last question that caught my eye, and at first I thought he was joking, till I read more, from Codrea’s article,
Still, going through this little exercise, and particularly seeing how EVP Hamlin identifies himself, reminded me of another question I’ve had for a long time that may seem like small potatoes compared to more weighty ones, but that points to a core issue:
Per the Bylaws (As amended April 17, 2023 and May 18, 2024), Article V, Section 1 (a):
“The officers of the Association shall be a President, one or more Vice Presidents, an Executive Vice President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Chief Compliance Officer, an Executive Director of the National Rifle Association General Operations, and an Executive Director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action.”
Then you get to (b) and it says (in boldface type):
“The Board may not abolish said offices nor create any other offices.”
So, what’s with “CEO”?
It’s not just how he refers to himself, it’s how NRA refers to him, case in point, on official tax documents they file with the government.
Some may say that it’s splitting hairs and there are bigger fish to fry. Originalist that I am, the prohibition is specific and must be there for a reason. And the Bylaws, which is a legal document, offers in a very real sense a Constitution analogy. Start deviating from that, even on little things, and they add up, grow to bigger things, and we’re back to the whole reason everything blew up in the first place.
Now to be fair to Doug Hamlin, the NRA’s had a “EVP/CEO”, going back many years, if not decades, Wayne LaPierre was at least publicly called “EVP/CEO”. But, how can the NRA have an “EVP/CEO” to begin with? As Codrea mentioned, NRA lists Doug Hamlin as “EVP/CEO” in its IRS forms! I’ve looked in my copy of the bylaws, which is a bit older than Codrea’s, and can find no mention of “executive vice president & chief executive officer”. There’s mentioned in detail, an office of “executive vice president”, but, nothing about a “chief executive officer” of any kind. How can this be?
I’ve been looking, and reading, since finding Codrea’s article. I’ve asked a few people about whether NRA can have an “EVP/CEO” and all I get are either shrugs or eye rolls, or most commonly, some French words about what the NRA can go do with itself. But no one has had a “Yes” or “No” answer.
During the recent “townhall” https://2awhiterook.com/nra-townhall-or-crummy-commercial/ the current president, Bill Bachenberg emphasized the board has 76 directors and 111 non directors holding committee seats. The NRA’s had 76 directors for decades, but I don’t know if the 111 non director committee member number is a historical norm or not for NRA. Yet, why hasn’t the board, ever brought up the “EVP/CEO” issue before? I’ve never seen any of the “reformers” mention it either. Not even on the various NRA reform blogs. Why?
The way I see it, this is something akin to the US Congress changing the duties of the Vice President of the United States and changing his title to “US Vice President & Chief Executive Officer”, without a Constitutional Amendment. That may sound a bit dramatic, but, think about it, who runs the NRA? Who does the 9am-5pm, Monday through Friday office work in Fairfax, VA? The Executive Vice President. How can the board, give him, when the bylaws explicitly prohibit it, a second office of “chief executive officer”? The board cannot, UNLESS it amends the bylaws, which I can find no evidence that it has. If the board is willing to over look the bylaws, regarding the leadership, the day to day leadership of the NRA, remember the bold print, The Board may not abolish said offices nor create any other offices., then what else has or could the board do, if it’s willing to violate the bylaws on such a serious matter? After all, what could be the most critical portion of the bylaws to follow, than who runs the organization? (Remember Wayne LaPierre? Bylaw violations? Endless legal problems and trials, and ongoing PR nightmares? A 50% loss in membership?)
Before writing this blog post, I, in an effort to make sure there was not something obvious that I was overlooking, some simple explanation for this “EVP/CEO” issue, I sent an email to NRA’s “EVP/CEO” Doug Hamlin, and received no reply. I then emailed the NRA’s Chief Compliance Officer Robert Mensinger, and again no reply.
Below are the emails, to which I received no reply,
As I said, no response. Below is my email to CCO Mensinger,
And again, no reply. Obviously, if I was wrong about all this, and it were some obvious thing I’d missed or misread, Mr. Hamlin, and I say “Mister”, as I don’t know the proper way to address him, would’ve directed his staff to email me the pertinent quotation from the bylaws that legitimizes his dual offices. The same is true for Chief Compliance Officer Mensinger. The crickets from both, are proof that I am correct in my assertions, as is David Codrea. Further, it should be said, that Mr. Hamlin’s salary and benefits package, which is hundreds of thousands, or perhaps into the millions of dollars per year is also, a very serious matter, as the NRA is spending that money, illegally.
A link to this blog post will be emailed to the over 80 NRA email addresses I’ve compiled. I urge the NRA state associations to use their influence and force the board to resolve this issue immediately, as the member to director email system is perpetually in-operable or non-existent.
Equip, train, pray and never disarm.
Update, https://2awhiterook.com/jeff-knox-on-nras-evp-ceo-problem/
Another update, https://2awhiterook.com/jeff-knox-again-responds-to-nras-evp-ceo-problem/
Update, https://2awhiterook.com/nra-director-journey-responds-to-nra-evp-ceo-problem/
Update, https://2awhiterook.com/more-indirectly-from-nra-director-judge-journey/
Update, https://2awhiterook.com/nras-2nd-vp-marshall-responds-to-evp-ceo-problem/
Update, https://2awhiterook.com/nras-2nd-v-p-marhsall-responds-again-to-evpceo-problem/
Update, https://2awhiterook.com/nras-2nd-v-p-marshall-says-amending-bylaws-is-a-good-suggestion/
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