Campaigning for the NRA Board at the 2022 SHOT Show
The message of reform and transparency was very well received
I attended the 2022 SHOT Show in Las Vegas last week. My reception was very similar to my 2020 SHOT show campaigning. I talked to well over a thousand people. Many were in the “used to be NRA member” category. The NRA members, with 2 exceptions (the same ones from 2020), were very positive about my candidacy and for bullet voting to send a message to the current Board.
I brought about 1,000 cards to remind people of my positions and qualifications and ran out on Wednesday and had to start writing my substack web address on the back of my personal business cards. With the exception of about 2 dozen folks that remembered me from the 2020 SHOT show, the common comment was “you are the first NRA Board candidate that I’ve ever met.” Rob Pincus from Save the Second was everywhere….. A former NRA board member emailed me that he found one of my cards on a table and complimented me on my messaging.
This is a great event to reconnect with friends from the industry and to meet others in person for the first time such as Derek LeBlanc of Kids S.A.F.E. Foundation, Matt Mallory from Meet the Pressers, and Charlie Cook from Riding Shotgun with Charlie.
I attended the event with 6 Governors. Dianna Mueller made a great point that we need to bring Firearm and Hunter safety education back into our schools and that we need the Governors to help us as we work bottom-up school board by school board.
I attended the “Women of the Gun” event. Amanda Suffercool and the DC project’s Cheryl Todd and Dianna Mueller have great pictures from the event on Facebook. It is fantastic to see the leadership by these women to provide a welcoming and safety-focused environment for all of the new women gun owners.
I really enjoyed this show. The additional space and the reduced attendance (Dean Weingarten has a good summary here) made a very relaxed atmosphere.
I said Hi to Willis Lee (NRA 1st VP) on Thursday morning as I passed him in the aisle, but he just scowled. I bumped into Wayne LaPierre in the NRA Booth on Thursday - he shook my hand again. I think he’s gotten the message that I’m not going away and will continue to work for the reform of the NRA board.
It is well past time for the NRA to shift from a defensive mindset to an offensive mindset. We need new blood on the board that protects our members’ rights by advancing them, not just defending them.
I ask for your support when the ballot for the NRA Board election comes in the next issue of your NRA magazine. Please vote ONLY for Frank C Tait. Jeff Knox has a great article on bullet voting.
I am the only candidate on the ballot from a petition of the members and committed to being a true independent director providing accountability and transparency to NRA members.
I also ask that you share this message and ask your fellow NRA members to support my candidacy by only voting for board candidates that are committed to reforming the NRA.
Frank, No matter how this all ends up, I just want to thank you, for all that you are doing and have done, to at least bring the attention of a large number of people on to what is the most important subject of our 2nd amendment freedom issue of the last perhaps 100 years. I have of course not been around that long, but just from what I can see, it might be the most important time since that long ago, that we have faced such a dangerous threat to not only the NRA, but to the right to keep and bear arms at all.
We have all seen the forces gathering on the horizon, just trying to prepare themselves for an attack against us. And even now, they ready themselves for action. Their troops wave back and forth, just waiting for the right time, when they perceive that they have the wind blowing in their favor. And you know that they are patient enough to wait for the right moment. We can never let down our guard, and we also must continue to work to gain strength, to attempt to move the tide our way. With so many new gun owners, it is important that we create a stronger than ever NRA, that is able to teach and train the new gun owners about the proper safety and the right mindset of owning guns, and the history and the reason for owning guns. If we don't do it then the anti gun faction will step in and teach them the same lies that they always have and as we know, we will lose them to the "dark side."
This is our point to stand on, our place to hold or lose it all. I perhaps am exaggerating a bit, but perhaps not that much. The time for action is now. The longer we wait, the less our chances of success. And I hope that you can all recognize that this is not merely hyperbole, but actual truth. As the saying goes, it is time to hang together, lest we hang separately.