National Rifle Association Hosts ‘Town Hall’ Style Meeting at 2025 GAOS

During the National Rifle Association’s 2025 Great American Outdoor Show, they held a town hall-esque style meeting. The February 2 meeting was entitled “NRA 2.0 Leadership Presentation,” and was opened to select invitees. Hosted by the Keystone Rifle and Pistol Association, the meeting was well attended, and aimed to add to the Association’s commitment to transparency as it turns over a new leaf.

NRA top leadership was present to give presentations, answer questions, and then breakaway to talk to attendees one-on-one. The event was emceed by NRA Board Member and Keystone Rifle and Pistol Association President Todd Ellis.

Present to speak were; NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin, NRA Board Member and President Bob Barr, NRA Board Member and First Vice President Bill Bachenberg, NRA Board Member and Second Vice President Mark Vaughan, and NRA Institute for Legislative Action Executive Director John Commerford.

“We’re going to have a microphone, and you can ask any question, but please keep it clean,” Ellis said during his opening remarks. “We don’t really care how sensitive it is. The concept here is … we’re here for our members, and that’s the whole purpose of us being here today.”

Hamlin was the first to address the crowd and set the cadence:

Certain law firms and certain legal cases have concluded, and so the funds that in past years have been spent to represent ourselves are now being put back into the operation. So what you’re going to see are direct investments in our programs and our services.

We’re getting back to basics.

And so specifically, we’re bringing in 20 new staffers here as soon as we can hire them, and they’re going to be deployed again [focusing on] education and training, [and] competitive shooting.

During the conversations, it was stated that similar town hall meetings like the one in Harrisburg, Pa. that day had occurred and will occur. The overall reception towards the leadership opening up to discuss the current state of affairs, paths forward, and even things from the past, seemed to be well-received.

The entire series of presentations and the Q and A were recorded via video.

Towards the end of the Q and A portion of the meeting, NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford was invited to speak. Commerford was appointed as the interim Executive Director in December 2024 and that interim status turned permanent sometime early this year. Commerford addressed the room:

The Institute for Legislative Action, we give a voice to NRA members in the U.S. Capitol, the state capitals, the courts, and even at the U.N. We’re one of the only gun groups that has a dedicated employee protecting your rights, making sure the U.N. doesn’t encroach into our sovereignty on the Second Amendment. But we have staff all across the country.

There’s David Conte in the back of the room. He’s our grassroots field coordinator here for Pennsylvania … We have Darin Goens, who’s here as well. He’s the state director for Pennsylvania. So if you have any complaints or issues, go see Darin. He’s here in the capital working every day. He has multiple states, but based off the legislative sessions, he visits all those capitals. And we have a team of Darins out there nationwide, making sure that you have a voice and your Second Amendment rights are protected.

In 2025, it’s a year of optimism for the NRA. It’s a year of optimism for the country. We have a pro-gun presidency. We have a pro-gun House of Representatives. We have a pro-gun Senate. Hopefully soon, we’re going to have a pro-gun director at the ATF, so we can work to have uniform policies. We can make sure that this administration, like the last one [was], isn’t harassing gun owners because someone got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

We’re going to be active in Congress.

Our top priority is concealed carry reciprocity. All of you in this room that are from Pennsylvania, if you cross that river and you head to New Jersey – there’s no other law that has that level of disparity between lawful conduct in one state and unlawful conduct in the next. And it’s time for that to change. Soon.

The room was full of optimism. Some attendees did avail themselves of the ability to ask hard questions or had those discussions privately with the leadership. The forum was one of openness and from all indications that day, we can expect more of these in the future.

Having a strong and solvent National Rifle Association is good for the Second Amendment, Second Amendment supporters, and for the United States. Since the May 2024 annual meeting, a lot has been done to try and right the ship. The NRA is aware they have a high level of burden to meet in order to regain the trust of the people.

We’ll be following up with the Association as time goes on. In this post-Wayne world, communications are flowing more easily and the organization can focus on getting back to what they’re good at.