With the historic win of President-elect Donald Trump, it’s obvious that a political realignment has taken place in America. The traditional party lines have, essentially, been erased by the coalition that swept Trump and the Republican Party in to majority positions across Capitol Hill.

For the next few editions, QA Outdoors will be focusing on what these changes could mean for the outdoor industry, outdoor access and Second Amendment rights. We begin our conversations with Doug Hamlin, CEO and Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association. While today’s NRA isn’t the force it once was, it still represents more gun owners than any other group in the country.

We started with a simple question: what is it reasonable to expect out of the new Trump administration when it comes to gun rights and regulations?

Doug Hamlin
There has really been no president that's been kinder with the NRA than Donald Trump. He has appeared nine times, either at our Great American Outdoor Show or at our Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum at our Annual Meetings over the years. I remember back in 2015 when he came walking into the exhibit hall in Louisville. We had, I think, eight or nine candidates at that time campaigning for the nomination. He is a brilliant politician and businessman, and he understood the significance of NRA back in 2015 when he first announced his candidacy.  He's been a great friend of the Second Amendment ever since. 

Doug Hamlin
We have been able to adjust on the legislative side. And I think in some situations, you know, we work back-and-forth with an administration on issues. My guess is that we will be able to continue to do that in the future with bump stocks and the administration.

And my guess is that we will be able to continue to do that in the future with bump stocks with the administration. And that’s more for the courts anyway.

Doug Hamlin
Well, I think they need to be more open-minded about the rights of law abiding gun owners. I see how gun sales have been up and crime has gone down. Our rights are critically important and that's who we represent. We represent the law-abiding gun owners. I think the Democratic Party over the years has moved so far left on so many issues.  There used to be a pretty significant number of Democrats that were pro-gun. Now, it’s strictly down party lines. I think that’s kind of my response to your question. They need to be more open-reminded regarding the issue, because it’s plainly not working for them.

Doug Hamlin
Yes, when you go to a gun show these days or an outdoor festival - I’m not sure about you Jim 0  but what I see is a broad cross section of American society. That includes people of color and women and we know that many first time gun buyers have come in to the market since COID. We are talking about as many as 20 million people. So let’s call it 10 million.  These are folks exercising their Second Amendment right. They feel insecure. And  we know that certain urban areas have had rises in violent crime. 

The FBI report had to be modified so the administration could claim that crime is down. Fortunately, we’ve got guys that had additional data and put that forward -and then those numbers were restated. But my point is, we have a lot of folks from all across our society that are now gun owners.  Five or ten years ago, they were not.

Doug Hamlin
That's a good question. We're already doing it and I think we've been ahead of that curve. If we launch the website called NRA Women back in in May 2020 and that's content for women written by women. We've always been extremely inclusive and we create entry-level content so that new folks coming into the sport; whether self-defense or recreational shooting or competitive shooting can learn. Then we have our certified instructors that number over 100,000.  Go to nra.org and you can find a certified instructor in your area because let's face that you make that initial purchase you need to become proficient. It's a tremendous responsibility to be a firearms owner. It's everything from the range and the role of a range safety officer to making sure you have the right ammunition for the for the firearm that you're using, Then making sure you understand breathing, sight picture,  trigger squeeze, and the care and cleaning of guns. Now I've had my experience. I wanna make sure my firearm’s adequately maintained. Then lastly  - and as important as anything we talk about- is making sure that firearm’s secure so those that shouldn’t have access to it don’t have access to it.

Doug Hamlin
Wow, good question. I hope so. I look ahead here, Jim, I mean, we know that the Biden administration put up this Office of Gun Violence Prevention. I think we need to talk about violence prevention. I mean ninety-plus percent of violent crimes out there are committed without a firearm. So let’s just talk about how do we stop violence?

Then you talk about ATF, right? My guess is that we're gonna have somebody who understands the issues and and will work with the industry. You have export-import issues. You brought up the bump stock issue, I mean, these are key issues that our folks are most interested in. 

How about national reciprocity?  I'm in Virginia with a concealed carry permit. If I cross the Potomac River into Maryland or go through the District (DC) I’m a felon.  I have a drivers license that allows me to drive in those jurisdictions. I’d really like to have my firearm in those jurisdictions - because crime happens in all jurisdictions. 

Then things like oh… how about silencers? Do they have to be a Class Three restricted item? They’ve become so much more mainstream. Maybe that's something that we push for limiting…and  minimizing the restrictions on applying for one. Those are the things I think we’ll look at.

Doug Hamlin
I think that we’ve already gotten it. Christmas came early. This election shocked a lot of people, so I’m very optimistic what we’re going to get the things we all want: a secure border, that will reduce crime. I’m hopeful we’re going to see economic programs that will reduce inflation. I see that the price of oil is already coming down, because the president has made it clear he’s going to pump more domestic oil and we’re going to become less dependent on foreign oil. That’s good for American jobs and American consumers.  

And I know the president's gonna do great things for the department of defense. I think the morale of our troops is critical. I think that’s going to be a great help with recruitment, because recuitment has been down. 

So I think overall patriotism and service to the country will be heightened issues. I believe he’ll be as good a friend as the NRA could ever want in the White House. With his sons being recreational shooters and hunters- I mean big-time hunters- they get the issue. Eric and Don Jr. are great friends of sportsmen, so I think Christmas came early.

Doug Hamlin
They're huge.  I have to give credit to our NRA Institute for Legislative Action team. They put together a wonderful strategic plan and executed it flawlessly. I know where we were in 2020. We just couldn't invest the kind of money we could in the past. In 2024, the plan was to build a “program firewall” in the Senate -and we focused- heavily- on Montana and Ohio. You mentioned Montana so we have Tim Sheehy, as Senator-elect. A Navy SEAL, a high achiever throughout his career on the business side and in the military. He’s going to be a great friend of the Second Amendment. We spent seven figures in Montana..both digital ads as well as “Get Out the Vote” television ads. And we did the same thing in Ohio. Where Bernie Moreno knocked off Sherrod Brown. Those were two huge pickups -and we spent seven figures in Ohio as well. And donations continued to come into our political victory funds right up until the last second; until the first part of November. So we had more money that we spent late on the races in Montana and Ohio…and it worked really well.

I'm just gonna say we also had millions of orange “Get Out the Vote” postcards that we mailed to our members. We had millions of text messages and emails that were sent out. And the thing about the NRA isthat we're pushing all gun owners. So let's say there's 100 million in the United States and we have 4 million members. We want to appeal to all gun owners. We took the lead in that area.

Doug Hamlin
If you're a member, you're receiving one of our official journals every month or you're tuning into one of our multitude websites.  We had a ton of messaging out there. A lot of it was digital focus. We might not have been out there in the mainstream media because they’re not going to pick up our story. Bit as far as people that are hunting and shooting, we touched a lot of people. 

Then people talk about hunters not voting… I saw some of that. But our polling shows that our members voted rate of 97 %. Our focus was to make sure those folks did their civic duty on election day.

In my situation I travel so much, I voted absentee, and that worked out well. I think people underestimated the NRA. If you got one of our official journals, we have the picture of Donald Trump from when he was wounded at the rally in Pennsylvania. That was our cover photo on all four of our print and all five of our digital magazines. Those went out to more than 3.2 million or our members.

So our focus was to make sure that those folks. Did their civic duty and in on election day or like in my situation I travel so much I voted absentee. I voted in Virginia have some tea and so that that worked out well but now we I think people out there underestimated NRA I mean if you get one of our official journal, we have the picture of Donald Trump from when he was wounded at the rally in Pennsylvania that was our cover photo that ran on all four of our print and all five of our digital magazines and those went out to 3.2 million or more of our members.

We also had our official voters journal. In Virginia, it gave me my house, my Senatorial candidates and then Donald Trump as my recommended presidential candidate. We rated over. 7,000 candidates and then delivered our recommendations to members according to their specific geographic areas, so we worked hard at this election.

Doug Hamlin
That's what our internal polling showed. Our members voted at a rate of 97% so they're paying attention 

Doug Hamlin
You're exactly right. Our members were were that pro gun firewall.  We were the folks that are paying attention. We understand the significance of elections. 

Elections have consequences. We know what happened in 2016 and we ended up with the conservative Supreme Court.  Now, fortunately we're gonna get a majority in the Senate. We’ve got a pro-gun president Trump and he’s been very outspoken with his support of us many times during his rallies. He talked about having an NRA endorsement.

I believe that if there are gonna be changes on the high court in the next four years. We’re in a great place. I mean, so many people talk about dollars alone. We didn’t have as much money to spend this year as we did in 2016. But we had more than we had in 2020. But it’s not all about the dollars, it’s about the passion of the individual members of the NRA. They stood up..and they were heard.

Doug Hamlin
Right. That's right. I mean, I can't tell you how many members and others that I spoke to were praying for this election. I had an A-list celebrity I was texting with very early Tuesday morning. He said “I’ve been up early praying.” So people were paying attention.

We love our country, and the Dems, I’ll just say they moved so very far left that they alienated the working-class union guys. I’m a midwesterner and even though the UAW endorsed the Harris campaign, the rank and file guys -the people working on the production lines- voted for Trump. Look at what happened in Macomb or Oakland counties in Michigan. Those are key automotive worker counties. 

Doug Hamlin
The other thing ... you and I've been at this a while. It was it was a landslide, right?  When you when you look at the electoral college and the numbers of votes and then at the popular vote with President Trump taking that one too. There were close races. And it could have gone the other way. So the pro-gun vote was a large part of the two or three percent in this election. The two or three percent that made a difference everywhere.

Doug Hamlin
I don't think I'm going out on a limb gym by saying the pro gun movement, the recreational shooting sports and hunting movement, made the difference. We made the difference. There are tens of millions of gun owners that aren’t NRA members, and we’re working hard to get the membership back to where it was. But our members listened and mobilized. 

Doug Hamlin
Freedom won. Freedom won.  We’ll see what it does to business. People have said Obama was the best gun salesman in history, and  we know what happened during his tenure. But, let's face it, we have to what's best for the country. I couldn’t see us hanging in there another four years with the policies that were promoted by this last administration. It’s been tough out there.