Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Ask Your Fellow Hunters to Join the NRA

Sunday, March 1, 2015

If you’re a hunter like me—and like 70 percent of NRA’s membership—I suspect you’d agree that hunting is a priceless American tradition.

Think back on your life. I’ll bet some of your fondest memories were made with friends and family in the field. My dad was an avid outdoorsman, and I grew up hunting quail, doves, ducks, turkey and deer by his side. My first rifle was an M1 carbine that I hunted deer with, and my first shotgun was a Browning Superposed that my dad and I shot, and that my son now shoots.

Just as we pass our firearms from one generation to the next, we also pass on our outdoors traditions. That means hunting, like firearms and the freedom to own them, is a cultural treasure that could be lost in just a single generation.

Our heritage is being threatened like never before. It’s threatened by the Obama administration’s disdain and hatred for the right to keep and bear arms and the traditions that give life and health to that freedom—including hunting.

Our heritage is also being threatened by anti-gun, anti-hunting and environmental activists who want to ban all lead ammunition. Last year, when they tried to ban lead ammo through the Toxic Substances Control Act, we stopped them. But like the gun-ban lobby, they’re constantly coming up with new strategies to make firearms and hunting if not illegal, then unaffordable.

Our hunting lands are threatened by federal land-grab regulations that make millions of acres of prime public hunting land inaccessible to hunters like you and me.

And our hunting seasons are threatened by radical groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which raises millions by masquerading as your local animal shelter, when in fact it doesn’t operate a single animal shelter and it spends most of its $165 million annual budget on lobbying, propaganda and more fundraising. HSUS has been fighting for years to stop mourning dove hunting, and to ban hunting for everything from bears to mountain lions to wolves. And they’re getting richer every year.

If we’re going to protect and preserve hunting, we need every American hunter to be a part of the NRA.

That’s why, as president of the NRA, I’ve made it my top priority to bring more hunters into the NRA as part of a strategy to strengthen and expand the NRA’s efforts on behalf of hunters.

As a member, you already know NRA is the largest, most powerful group fighting for hunters’ rights. With millions of hunters among our ranks, no other group in the world comes close.

But there are 35 million hunters in this country, and far too few of them realize all we do on their behalf. So tell them: One of NRA’s primary objectives in our bylaws is “to promote and defend hunting as a shooting sport and as a viable and necessary method of fostering the propagation, growth and conservation, and wise use of our renewable wildlife resources.”

The NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) has a dozen federal lobbyists, and 27 more working in all 50 state legislatures for hunters. We coordinate with fish and game officials at every level on wildlife, land and related legislative and regulatory issues. And NRA-ILA is formally recognized as a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the United Nations, where we fight to ensure your hunting rights aren’t infringed by international treaties.

You can see the results of ILA’s efforts in constitutional amendments that protect the right to hunt in 18 states so far; shooting range protection laws in 47 states; and hunter protection laws in all 50 states.

While we fight to safeguard hunting, we work to ensure hunters are safe. We’ve been the national authority in that effort since 1949, when our first hunter safety-training course became the model for the nation. We train more Americans to be safe with firearms—for hunting or any lawful purpose—than any other public or private institution, more than a million Americans every year.

If you want to protect our outdoors traditions so future generations can enjoy the gifts with which we have been blessed, then do your part to protect them.

Join, renew or upgrade your NRA membership. Mentor a young hunter, or take someone hunting who might not otherwise have a chance.

Most importantly, ask your fellow hunters to do their fair share for hunting by joining the NRA—the only group big enough and strong enough to fight for hunters’ rights and win.

 

IN THIS ARTICLE
James Porter Hunting

BY James Porter

President, NRA

TRENDING NOW
Trump’s DOJ Will Participate in Oral Arguments in Illinois Semi-Auto Ban Case

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

Trump’s DOJ Will Participate in Oral Arguments in Illinois Semi-Auto Ban Case

Within six months of the landmark United States Supreme Court decision of NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022), Illinois disregarded the Court’s clear directives and enacted into law H.B. 5741, the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA). 

Armed Citizens: Not Just an American Concept

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

Armed Citizens: Not Just an American Concept

We frequently post stories about law-abiding citizens who, by exercising their rights protected under the Second Amendment, bring an end to violent criminal assaults.  

New York Law Imperils U.S. Olympic Target Shooting, Favors China’s Dominance

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

New York Law Imperils U.S. Olympic Target Shooting, Favors China’s Dominance

As U.S. shooting sports athletes prepare for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, New York law is burdening target shooters in the Empire State.

Third Circuit Strikes Some New Jersey Carry Restrictions in NRA Case

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Third Circuit Strikes Some New Jersey Carry Restrictions in NRA Case

Yesterday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Siegel v. Platkin, striking some of the carry restrictions New Jersey enacted in response to the NRA’s landmark Supreme Court victory, New York State Rifle & ...

“Sensitive Places” Embolden Criminals and Threaten the Law-abiding

News  

Monday, September 15, 2025

“Sensitive Places” Embolden Criminals and Threaten the Law-abiding

A beyond horrific murder flashed before our eyes in recent weeks, and a nation collectively mourned Iryna Zarutska after the sickening attack that took her life on a public train in Charlotte, North Carolina

California: Legislature Adjourns with Anti-Gun Bills Headed to the Governor's Desk

Monday, September 15, 2025

California: Legislature Adjourns with Anti-Gun Bills Headed to the Governor's Desk

On Friday the California State Legislature adjourned the 2025 legislative session in typical California fashion, advancing anti-gun legislation to Governor Newsom's desk. Contact Governor Newsome today and urge his veto of AB 1078, AB 1127, AB ...

Gun Control “Journalist” Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

Gun Control “Journalist” Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

Pure gun control. As in disarmament and banning of firearms. It’s rare that anti-gunners get straight to the exact point that we have been warning of for decades. 

Colorado: CSSA Files Suit Challenging "Polis Permission Slip" Permit-to-Purchase Law

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Colorado: CSSA Files Suit Challenging "Polis Permission Slip" Permit-to-Purchase Law

Last week, the Colorado State Shooting Association (CSSA), the official state affiliate of NRA, filed a lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 25-003...

Minnesota: Senate Gun Violence Prevention Working Group Meeting on Monday

Friday, September 12, 2025

Minnesota: Senate Gun Violence Prevention Working Group Meeting on Monday

On Monday, September 15th, the Minnesota Senate will hold a special working group on "gun violence prevention."

The Desperate Deflection to the “Red State Murder Problem”

News  

Monday, September 8, 2025

The Desperate Deflection to the “Red State Murder Problem”

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) may have thought he had scored against President Donald Trump in a recent war of words over rampant crime and the deployment of federal law enforcement agents to Democratic-led cities

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.