By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Former Congressman Bob Barr has been elected to head the National Rifle Association following the organization’s annual convention in Dallas, Texas over the weekend.
Barr has served on the NRA Board of Directors and was first vice president going into the weekend. He is joined by newly-elected “reform” board member William A. Bachenberg as first vice president, and Mark E. Vaughan, another “reform” candidate, as second vice president.
Bachenberg is a Pennsylvania businessman, and Vaughan is president of the Oklahoma Rifle Association.
Named as executive vice president/CEO is Doug Hamlin, who served as executive director of Publications.
With reformers in top positions, many observers see the election results as a signal the NRA has changed course, and will begin recovering from the nightmare of legal actions which enveloped the organization for at least the past five years. Long-serving former Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre stepped down earlier this year as the trial over NRA mismanagement and alleged corruption began in a New York courtroom. Serving as interim EVP up to the weekend convention was Andrew Arulanandam, a long-serving NRA staffer.
According to the Associated Press, Hamlin released a statement in which he declared, “Our association is at a decisive moment in our history, and the future of America and constitutional freedoms depends on the success of the NRA.”
Hamlin said in a statement he looked forward to working with staff to “promote political and public policies that are in the best interest of our members and all gun owners.”
Upon being named president of the association, Barr said, “I have been a fighter my whole life and I commit to boldly fight for our Second Amendment rights on behalf of the millions of NRA members. We need to grow our ranks, especially in this election year, and I pledge to focus my attention on doing just that.”
But in a post on social media, John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying organization, declared, “In selecting Hamlin, a longtime insider with much of LaPierre’s baggage and none of his fundraising ability, the @NRA’s chaotic infighting and financial doom spiral shows no signs of stopping.”
It may be wishful thinking on Feinblatt’s part. Replies to his post were largely negative, with respondents reminding him, “Your side is still getting crushed in the courts,” and “We’re coming back stronger than ever.”
But in a separate statement on “X” (formerly Twitter), Feinblatt continued his anti-NRA ranting by attacking the appearance of former President Donald Trump at the NRA convention Saturday.
“In between meandering rants about Al Capone, the President of France, and golf,,” Feinblatt wrote, “Donald Trump once again made clear that he is all in on the @NRA’s politically toxic agenda of undoing the life-saving progress we’ve made on gun safety under President Biden.”
In addition to naming Barr as NRA president and Hamlin as EVP/CEO, the NRA Board of Directors re-elected Sonya B. Rowling as NRA treasurer and John C. Frazer as NRA secretary.
A new position was created by the membership, that of NRA chief compliance officer, and the Board of Directors elected Robert Mensinger to that position, NRA reported.
