by Karen Mehall Phillips, Director of Communications, NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum - Monday, August 9, 2021
While the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits marks one of the biggest celebrations of American freedom each year, it’s the NRA show’s annual national NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum (HLF) dinner that specifically marks a celebration of hunters and hunting. As we gun owners get set for the 150th NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Houston, Sept. 3-5, the NRA invites every hunter to get a ticket and join NRA HLF members at the Corinthian in downtown Houston on Fri., Sept. 3, from 6-9 p.m. as we vow to protect our rich hunting heritage and honor renown wildlife artist and NRA HLF member John Seerey-Lester, recipient of the NRA HLF’s 2020 NRA Distinguished Hunters Leadership Award, who passed away last May.
Highlights will include remarks from keynote speaker Britt Longoria, owner of philanthropic consulting firm Rock Environmental and executive director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Trinity Oaks based in San Antonio. Recipient of the 2021 SCI Diana Award, most hunters know her for seizing the narrative after a barrage of death threats and other attacks from animal rights extremists over a photo of her with a leopard she hunted in Africa. Once again, the fact that without hunting there is no wildlife conservation was swept under the rug because the last thing antis can let happen is public education. “Once I understood it was not about me or the individual and that it was an attack on all of us, I started doing my own social media posts,” she said, as she began to tell her story—the story of hunting.
Attendees will receive a free copy of the NRA’s new book, “How to Talk about Hunting: Research Based Communications Strategies.” The result of a four-year NRA HLF-funded research project assessing public attitudes toward hunters, hunting and animal rights, it delivers a blueprint for communicating and debating about hunting, teaching us to be tactical, practical thinkers and communicators. In showcasing the NRA data, the book’s 11 chapters are packed with talking points and key takeaways. This tool for hunters comes at just the right time as the hunting community works to ensure cultural acceptance of legal, regulated hunting, which remains vulnerable to public opinion.
Dinner tickets are $250 per person or $2,500 for a table of eight, which ensures preferred seating. Doors open at 6 p.m. for a reception followed by the dinner and program from 7-9 p.m., including a live auction featuring hunts, firearms and hunting gear with some items to benefit the NRA Institute for Legislative Action and others supporting the NRA HLF.
The NRA and NRA HLF invites every hunter to join us in celebrating the NRA’s 150th Anniversary, marking 150 years of promoting hunter safety and defending hunting as a shooting sport and a viable and necessary method of fostering the propagation, growth, conservation and wise use of renewable wildlife resources. Through the NRA’s leadership, education and training programs and services, and track record of fighting for hunters, no organization does more to support hunters than the NRA.