by Karen Mehall Phillips, NRA Media and NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum - Tuesday, January 7, 2025
While some rang in 2024 as the Year of the Dragon, we hunters celebrated it as the year of the hunter, culminating in our mobilizing to vote freedom first and protect our right to hunt where we hunt and where we live on Election Day. Every step of the way, this award-winning NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum (HLF) website—NRAHLF.org—did what it has done since its launch in 2016, monitoring hunting issues and exposing animal rights extremists’ efforts to derail hunting’s future while telling the truth about hunting and its vital role in sustaining our nation’s wildlife. So, as we start the new year with a renewed commitment to vigilance, let’s revisit the leading topics of 2024.
Working alongside the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, NRAHLF.org articles and social media alerts delivered ongoing updates for hunters on the national front. While tracking the Biden administration’s efforts to close access to federal lands for shooting activities, front and center was coverage of its proposals to close 1.3 million acres of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and 99% of the Sonoran Desert National Monument in Arizona. While restricting access to opportunities for responsible, recreational shooting marked an overreach of regulatory authority, articles also shared how such proposals result in lost conservation revenue as America’s conservation initiatives are largely funded by the excise taxes that we hunters and shooters pay on the purchases of guns, ammunition and related equipment. As the website spurred hunters and shooters to protect their rights, it shared the need to seize control of pivotal moments in protecting hunting’s future and to vote.
With the push to ban the use of traditional lead ammunition never far from the top of extremists’ to-do lists—despite there is no scientific proof that it negatively impacts wildlife populations—the site was quick to cover the news when the U.S. House passed a measure protecting the use of lead ammunition. Readers also will recall that every time the Biden administration’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced it would open more national wildlife refuge lands to hunting and fishing, those new or expanded opportunities came with a catch: a ban on the use of lead ammo and fishing tackle.
Exposing animal rights extremists’ efforts to trick the public into funding their anti-hunting agendas, the website reported the extent to which extremist groups profit from the so-called animal rights movement that is now a billion-dollar industry. Articles covered the Humane Society of the United States, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and more. The site also featured a Protect the Harvest report underscoring how these groups are influencing law enforcement, school children and religious institutions, using donor funds to push legislation and pay for their salaries, retirement plans and investments in offshore bank accounts.
NRAHLF.org covered the efforts of the NRA and American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP), the 50-plus member coalition of America’s hunting and wildlife conservation groups of which the NRA is a founding member. Articles showcased AWCP efforts to thwart the Biden administration’s dangerous wildlife refuge proposals, including pushing for recission of the National Wildlife Refuge System’s (NWRS) biological integrity, diversity and environmental health (BIDEH) proposal aiming to change how the hunter-backed NWRS manages its lands and waters. AWCP coverage included support of S. 2914—the Outdoor Recreational Outfitting and Guide Act—following a Biden administration rule that stood to put outfitters out of business by putting guides who operate on federal lands under federal minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Other news articles warned against the Biden administration’s move to release grizzly bears in Washington state as the website worked with wildlife biologists to trounce a Newsweek article’s claim that hunting harms the environment. It also exposed a bogus Princeton University study linking gun violence to deer season and tracked passage of the Trust the Science Act relaunching the process to delist the long-since-recovered gray wolf.
Wolves continued to draw national attention with articles tracking the USFWS’ appeal to reinstate a 2020 Trump-era rule delisting the gray wolf from Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections. Articles highlighted NRA-ILA’s leadership role on this issue, documenting its 20-year court battle to remove the species’ federal protections so that ESA resources can be diverted to species truly in peril. The website promoted how the Biden administration’s appeal was followed by a joint brief from the NRA, Safari Club International and the state of Utah underscoring extremists’ abuse of the ESA.
The NRA had national news of its own to share with the hunting community and its millions of members in 2024 as the NRA HLF site introduced new NRA EVP and CEO Doug Hamlin as “one of us” and underscored his dedication to building an even stronger NRA. Other NRA material celebrated the NRA’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court legal victory in NRA v. Vullo; and the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits, including the NRA HLF’s annual gathering of members and the NRA Women’s Leadership Forum Gala featuring keynote speaker Fox News’ Pete Hegseth. Monitoring the NRA’s role in the hunter safety arena, it promoted the expansion of the free NRA Online Hunter Education Course in South Dakota; a $30,000 NRA HLF donation to process venison snack sticks for hungry school children in Missouri; a Memorandum of Understanding with the First Hunt Foundation; and an NRA/Boone & Crockett Club partnership to launch a new free Fair Chase and Hunter Ethics course largely spearheaded by NRA HLF chairman Ward “Trig” French.
State-level reports, newsletters and social media alerts included coverage of NRA efforts to warn Maine hunters of state lawmakers’ plans to target hunting rights; death threats against hunters—most recently in New Jersey where a hunter was harassed for taking a record black bear; and a sweeping anti-gun measure signed into law in Massachusetts that NRA-ILA warns will have devastating effects on gun owners while infringing on hunters’ rights. Stay tuned for an update as NRA-ILA prepares to challenge the law’s unconstitutional restrictions.
As hunters expected, state-based issues ramped up as extremists worked to get anti-hunting ballot initiatives added to state ballots on Election Day. While NRAHLF.org reported that Oregon extremists failed to put a hunting and fishing ban on Oregon’s ballot, it featured ongoing coverage of the intense fight in Colorado as extremists sidestepped wildlife science and the legislative regulatory process and got the required number of voter signatures to put a cat hunting ban to a vote on Nov. 5. Though it failed with 55% of voters rejecting it, extremists vow to regroup for the next election, reminding us all to remain vigilant. Marking another Election Day win, voters in Florida passed an NRA-ILA-backed Right to Hunt and Fish amendment, making Florida the 24th state to have a RTHF amendment added to its state constitution. This is thanks in large part to NRA-ILA’s 20-year push to get a RTHF amendment passed in every state.
To no surprise, Colorado remained in the news as we brought readers updates on the state’s voter-mandated wolf reintroduction efforts, which has led to serious issues for ranchers, farmers and hunters as wolves target livestock and deer and elk herds. The year ended with NRAHLF.org reporting Colorado could potentially delay additional wolf releases amid Colorado’s budget woes, which could save the state general fund budget $2.1 million.
For more state news, NRA-ILA victories for hunters included defeat of a bill aiming to put anti-hunters on Vermont’s state’s fish and wildlife board. The news, in part, again sounded home the importance and effectiveness of hunters’ advocacy in influencing state legislation.
Sharing news from America’s state wildlife agencies, the website championed Oregon’s new ad campaign to increase awareness of poaching; Iowa’s Field to Fork program; and Rhode Island’s announcement underscoring hunting’s role as a wildlife management tool. The website also covered a joint study between the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Purdue University documenting how hunting reduces deer-vehicle collisions and shared updates on chronic wasting disease as Washington state announced it was the 35th state to detect its presence.
International content included news of Alberta’s move to reinstate grizzly bear hunting to manage problem bears and news of Europe's push for regulatory changes as conflicts with wolves prompt support of targeted culling. Also in the mix were regular reminders of how hunters' dollars fund anti-poaching efforts and updates on the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation's efforts to stand with the NRA HLF to protect hunting's public acceptance.
To this end, multiple articles touted hunters’ role in wildlife conservation, including showcasing studies documenting how gun owners, hunters and shooters overwhelmingly support the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and how the Pittman-Robertson Act provided nearly $1 billion in conservation funding for 2024 alone. The website also promoted the NRA-backed R3 (Recruit, Retain and Reactivate) movement across America. Just as important, it provided insight into how hunters protect wildlife and their habitats, providing examples of hunter-backed conservation groups’ dollars at work.
NRAHLF.org also celebrated our all-American lifestyle, covering the milestones of hunting industry companies, including marking the 75th anniversaries of Hornady and Ruger. In sharing how hunters eat the meat they consume and share it with their families, friends and those less fortunate, the website also shared how consumers are increasingly relying on hunting to sidestep rising food costs.
Last but never least, vital efforts focused on promoting and building support for the NRA’s National Wild Game Meat Donation Month initiative launched in 2023, celebrating the heart of the hunter and hunters’ practical solution to fighting hunger as they continue donating millions of pounds of nutritious game meat to America’s Hunters for the Hungry (HFH) programs each year. In addition to writing articles for American Hunter and the NRA HLF website, NRA Media efforts entailed reaching out to U.S. governors to encourage them to stand with the NRA in championing hunters’ quest to share their surplus venison with those less fortunate by declaring Wild Game Meat Donation Month in their states. NRA Media drafted proclamations for the following nine governors, who also received promotion on the NRA HLF website in helping to feed those less fortunate in our own back yards: Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry; Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves; Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice; and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.
Rest assured that as we move into January, it will be business as usual for NRAHLF.org in 2025 as it continues working for hunters. Please check this NRA HLF website regularly for news and updates on the issues impacting hunters, hunting and wildlife conservation. In the meantime, we hunters will continue to invest our lives in purpose and meaning as we take part in our cherished hunting traditions.