Maxim Defense announces they will be attending CANCON 2025, the suppressor and tactical firearms expo in Clinton, SC. The event will be held Thursday, November 6th through Saturday, November 8th, 2025 at the Clinton House Plantation.

Mission First Tactical (MFT) announces they will be exhibiting at the 2025 Fall CANCON Fully Suppressed Range Day & Gun Show held Thursday, November 6th through Saturday, November 8th, 2025 at the Clinton House Plantation. 

Game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking information related to a bull elk that was found dead and unclaimed on Saturday, Oct. 25.  It's unclear whether the elk was shot at and killed at that location, or if it was initially shot and wounded on another adjacent property.

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that a petition for a writ of certiorari has been filed with the Supreme Court of the United States in Schoenthal v. Raoul, an FPC-backed lawsuit asking the Court to overturn the Seventh Circuit's dangerous decision upholding Illinois's ban on carrying firearms on public transportation.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review in Schoenthal v. Raoul, SAF's challenge to the public transit carry ban in Illinois.

Beretta celebrates the remarkable achievements of its ambassadors at the 2025 ISSF World Championship Shotgun, held October 8-19 in Athens, Greece. Team Beretta's Vincent Hancock claimed gold in Men's Skeet securing his fifth ISSF World Championship title. In the Women's Skeet event, Samantha Simonton captured gold to become the 2025 Women's Skeet World Champion.

Leupold & Stevens announces that legendary shooter and longtime Leupold Pro Team member Doug Koenig has won the 2025 NRA Action Pistol Championship, held Oct. 17-25 at the Hamilton Pistol Club in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) celebrates Team Ruger Captain Doug Koenig for capturing two national championship titles this season. At the New Zealand Nationals in Hamilton, New Zealand, Koenig demonstrated his skill and discipline, taking first place with a perfect score of 1920 and an X-count of 179. Koenig went on to win another national championship title at the 12th NRA World Action Pistol Championship in Hamilton, New Zealand.

In a momentous celebration of five decades of dedication to the hunting community, Texas Trophy Hunters Association (TTHA) recognized Texas Hunter Products with a prestigious award commemorating their status as the organization's most loyal customer over the past 50 years.

The National Rifle Association has gone through something of a rebirth over the last few years. Several reform-minded directors were elected in 2024 and 2025. With the election of more in the 2026 election, the forces of NRA 2.0 should have a supermajority, assuming complete control of the Association.

Earlier this year, current NRA President Bill Bachenberg unseated old guard incumbent Bob Barr. When he assumed office, Bachenberg announced big changes were on the horizon. “The board is now running the organization where, years ago, with Wayne, it was the other way around,” Bachenberg said during an interview. “Wayne ran the Association, and the board was cannon fodder.”

Bachenberg talked candidly about the changes that are coming. “The board has taken its fiduciary responsibility,” he added. “It's using the bylaws to do what we need to do.”

Some of the changes that Bachenberg said were going to happen include restructuring how meetings are conducted. Accountability has been added to all of the committees and responsibility statements have been updated. He noted that important governance committees now meet monthly and others are meeting bimonthly.

“I feel we had one of our best board meetings based on board member response back in September,” Bachenberg said. “Over the summer, we started also looking at how's the NRA running.”

One of Bachenberg's points of emphasis is that the NRA shouldn't have a glut of ineffectual programs. It's better, in his view, to have fewer programs that actually provide value. Bachenberg described too many of the current list as “feel good” programs that don't really provide value to the majority of the NRA's members.

“We need to deliver quality programs at a level of excellence, instead of 100 programs that are just not up to par,” Bachenberg asserted. Part of the restructuring Bachenberg and the board are making is the removal of “silos.” Bachenberg said that too many programs and divisions are standalone. He says the organization needs to be flattened to increase efficiency and aid in maintaining good communications. Along those lines, membership and advancement (fundraising) divisions will be combined.

The NRA has celebrated some great gun rights successes by the Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm of the Association. The NRA-ILA is involved in about 60 active lawsuits right now challenging gun rights restrictions. “It's accelerating under John Commerford's leadership,” Bachenberg said. Members are demanding more challenges on the state and local levels and the Association plans to increase funding to NRA-ILA to make that happen. Ensuring that NRA-ILA is adequately funded is a priority for the upcoming midterm elections.

While some current programs will be shelved, that's going to allow others to flourish. The NRA's general operations will get an overhaul. A full-time chief operating officer is going to be hired to handle all day-to-day operations. That will allow Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin to continue to engage with members and affiliates across the country while keeping the business of the NRA running smoothly. Bachenberg said he made the same recommendation to LaPierre over 15 years ago, but it was ignored.

Clubs and associations, education and training, and competition are all areas that the new leadership has earmarked as priorities. The NRA's publications are going to change, too, moving increasingly into a more digital format. The four primary journals of the NRA are going to be reduced to two. A lot of the content will be streamlined and available online and NRA Publications will be rebranded as NRA Media.

As for the hard copy publications, they're likely going to be delivered on a quarterly basis with schedules being flexible to accommodate Association business such as ballot delivery. Bachenberg identified American Rifleman and American Hunter as the two magazines that will survive in their current form.

Social media and marketing will be consolidated under the new NRA Media banner. Bachenberg says the Association has picked up a lot of new members thanks to its new social media strategy and the plan is to continue to expand those efforts. Many, he said, are brand new members to the NRA.

Membership benefits is another area leadership wants to expand. Bachenberg said they're going to be getting away from some of the tired ancillary benefits and start offering things that will have a real, tangible value to members. Discounts on guns, ammo, accessories, etc., are all things they're seeking to provide members. He noted that several vendors have already come forward and Bachenberg wants NRA members to be able to say, “Boy, my $45 membership was worth $2,000″ at the end of the year.

“I'm not interested in bringing a product in at a 10% discount for members finding that you can buy it on the internet every day for 20% off,” Bachenberg added. “These need to be exclusives for NRA members.”

By the end of first quarter 2026, they hope to have a new app launched. Communication with members is going to take priority and through technology. Earlier this year, Bachenberg launched a self-funded “president's forum” (NRAPresident.com) to connect with members. He plans on continuing to put information out through the site and said it should stand as an “independent voice of the board,” rather than become an NRA corporate property.

Through the app or other conduits, getting more information out about meetings to the members is also a priority. “We need to do a better job announcing when our board meetings are,” Bachenberg admitted. “So, if members want to come, they can participate.”

Bachenberg says he's excited about the upcoming changes. He said officers and many board members have put a lot of time and effort into planning and implementing them. When asked about the timeline, Bachenberg said many of the efforts are going to happen immediately. “We're enacting immediately, so a lot of the changes of the division(s), consolidation — some of the horizontal work is going to happen immediately,” he noted.

“We haven't really changed much in the last 50 years,” Bachenberg admitted. He sees the restructuring as a way to get back to why the NRA was originally founded in 1871 — marksmanship. “The Union soldiers couldn't shoot straight,” he explained, “they took about 1000 rounds, based on documentation, to hit one Confederate soldier. So that's really why the NRA was founded, marksmanship.”

“Senior staff at NRA were very supportive,” Bachenberg said of the upcoming changes. “They came along a little, you know, kicking and screaming, but they knew in their heart of hearts, this had to be done, and that this was the time to do it.”

Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin recognizes the need for the changes as well. He's also celebrating many of the recent victories the NRA has had.

“It's our duty to ensure the long-term strength of the Second Amendment and health of our critical organization,” Hamlin said in a release. “The NRA has delivered on its promise to provide a pro-gun President, Congress, and Supreme Court for our members. These successes have not gone unnoticed by our adversaries, who are doubling down on election spending, lawfare, and new programs to push their radical gun-grabbing agenda. To ensure we are prepared for the fights ahead, we must create a leaner NRA that focuses on stretching every member dollar to best protect your right to keep and bear arms.”

“The NRA is listening and anticipating our members' needs,” Bachenberg said in prepared statements. “NRA 2.0 is re-focusing on its core missions of protecting our God-given Second Amendment rights, gun safety and training, supporting our Clubs & Associations and shooting competitions. We are flattening the organizational structure, redeploying staff, and exploiting technology to better manage the day-to-day activities of the Association. By knocking down the current vertical silos and creating cross-functional teams, there will be less duplication, stronger member services, and better communications.”

The shakeup won't come without some cost, however. “There will be some furloughs involved with this, which will be announced on Friday,” Bachenberg said. “So (the move) will have some pain, unfortunately.”

How all these changes are going to shake up the NRA and what the impact will be has yet to be determined. Bachenberg says he's hopeful, citing a lot of talent involved on the board side and within the committees — real professionals and captains of industry.

“The Association isn't used to an active board,” Bachenberg said. “It's not an activist board, it's an active board.” A lot of eyes are on the National Rifle Association. The largest pro-Second Amendment organization in the U.S. continues to reinvent itself after the turmoil of the past few years and it's returning to its core mission of serving the Association's members, the Second Amendment, and gun-owning public.

— John Petrolino, Shooting News Weekly