Open Letter to NRA’s Community of Competitive Shooters ~ NRA Past President, John C. Sigler

Opinion

This is an open letter addressed to NRA’s Community of Competitive Shooters. I write this letter because it is time to clear the air and move forward together to restore NRA’s leadership in the world of conventional competitive shooting and beyond.

NRA is strongest when its competitive shooting programs are healthy and strong. Competitive shooters are all strong Second Amendment activists.

When you think about it, we have more to lose than other gun owners. If we lose the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, not only do we lose the ability to defend ourselves, our homes, and our families, but we also lose our sport – which, in many cases, is a lifelong endeavor passed down from generation to generation.

Like many of you, I remember the days when the NRA was “The Leader” and “The Gold Standard” in competitive shooting. Not so much anymore.

Not that long ago a police competitor could go to the NRA’s National Police Shooting Championships at the old Highway Patrol Range in Jackson, Mississippi and expect to compete against 1,000 other competitors from throughout the United States and several foreign countries– not so now.

In the early 1990s, the NRA Nationals at Camp Perry saw four completely full ranges with 100 shooters per relay and three full relays – that’s 1,200 shooters – competing for the right to be named the NRA’s National Pistol Champion. Now, NRA is lucky to draw 100 shooters for its national Precision Pistol Championship event.

Not that long ago, the NRA’s Smallbore Program was the best-attended in the world, and the same was true for High Power Rifles “OTC” and Long Range—not so anymore.

More recently, NRA abandoned the Bianchi Cup Championship, giving it to CMP, and NRA Collegiate shooting is almost non-existent – all because the NRA Competitions Division has been gutted, stripped of funding, and stripped of personnel.

When I first joined the NRA Board of Directors, I was just one of almost three dozen active or recently retired NRA Competitive shooters on the Board. Now, there is less than a handful of competitive shooters on the board.

Why? What happened, and how did it happen?

Over the years, there has been a concerted effort on the part of “The Powers That Be” to purge the Board of competitive shooters. Why did that happen?

Some might argue that it is because times change, people change, and interests change—and maybe some of that is true—but that is not the whole truth or the real reason.

The reason those things happened is that those in charge of NRA at the time and up until now failed to understand who we, NRA’s competitive shooting community, really are or the vital role we play within the NRA. And because of that and against our repeated protestations, time and again, they took money from Competitions and used that money and those assets for other things not of our choosing, and not always wisely.

They failed to understand the simple truth that NRA competitive shooters are the solid backbone of NRA and that it is the competitive shooting community that makes the rest of NRA happen – and that includes the political side of NRA at NRA-ILA.

Those people – most of whom are now gone, thank God – failed to understand that we of the competitive shooting community are the same people who run the NRA clubs, we run the ranges, and we are the instructors who bring new shooters safely into the NRA Family.

When NRA-ILA needs volunteers to attend rallies, make phone calls, knock on doors, hand out literature, work the gun shows, help with campaigns, testify at legislative hearings, and work the polls on Election Day, it is the competitive shooters who give up their precious time with their families, their precious time on the range, and take time off from work (usually without pay) to fight for our precious Right to Keep and Bear Arms – while others sit back and reap the benefits of our hard work.

We know all of this to be true – but for many years, the so-called “Powers-That-Be” at NRAHQ either did not know, did not care, or simply took us for granted.

During my six years in The Chairs, and especially during my two years as NRA’s 59th President from 2007 to 2009, I advocated for stronger support for competitive shooting and for our military and veteran members, many of whom were—or wanted to become—competitive shooters. In the process, I advocated for strengthening and supporting our system of clubs and associations. I even created a new Endowment—the Competitive Shooting Endowment.

That all went away when I left The Chairs, and I was left as a sometimes-lone voice crying in the wilderness, fighting for a cause that was easy to ignore and hard to replace.

When “The-Powers-That-Be” needed money for other things, they took it from the Competitions Division – and they did it year after year after year. This is not a new phenomenon; it has been going on for at least the past ten years and probably more.

We complained – I complained – but the louder we complained, the further back we were pushed, the more we were ignored and isolated, and the more of us were “removed” from the Board.
Not that long ago NRA’s Competitions Division boasted a robust and knowledgeable staff. Any competitor could call NRAHQ and talk to a person in the Competitions Division who not only knew the NRA Rules but was an accomplished expert in the same discipline as the caller with the question – not anymore.

It is no secret. Those of us who have been fighting this war from the “inside” have known for years that Wayne LaPierre was no friend to competitive shooting and no friend to the competitive shooter, and neither were most of his closest staff. But Wayne is no longer with us, and neither are many of the others who brought us to this point.

Now, there is good news! There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a new day at NRA – or so it seems.

The new Board officers, Bob Barr, Bill Bachenberg, and Mark Vaughan, are all friends of competitive shooting. Our new Executive Vice President, Doug Hamlin, tells us he has made rebuilding NRA’s Competitive Shooting Division a high priority.

These new officers seem to understand that the NRA must rebuild its clubs – clubs that are in most cases run by competitive shooters. They seem to understand that NRA’s education and training activities must be rebuilt and reinvigorated and that in most cases it is the competitive shooters who will fulfill that obligation.

These new officers know that NRA-ILA and NRA’s Grassroots Division are at the heart of NRA’s political power in defense of the Second Amendment. They also understand that NRA’s competitive shooting community is the backbone and the key to that grassroots effort and success.

The prior administration gutted NRA Competitions and, in the process, hurt NRA badly. It appears that this new administration and the new Board officers understand that if NRA is to recover and rebuild, the first step is for NRA to return to its roots and rebuild and revitalize NRA Competitions, to treat NRA competitors with the respect we have earned and deserve, and to give all NRA members a good solid reason to recruit other new members.

It seems to be a new day at the NRA – let us hope and pray that it continues.

John C. Sigler

Mr. John C. Sigler is Chair of NRA’s F-Class High Power Rifle Committee. John was a member of the United States F-Class (Open) Rifle Teams that won the 2023 World Championship (Gold Medal) in South Africa and the Third Place Bronze Medal at the 2017 World Championships in Canada. Mr. Sigler holds NRA Distinguished International Rifleman Badge #67.

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