Q1: What is your home gun club and how long have you been a member?
I belong to a few clubs in my area, but the first one I joined when I came to Philadelphia in 2017 is the Upper Perkiomen Sportsman’s Association. A new friend suggested my wife and I visit the unique property that was founded in 1949. It’s rural, but the outdoor range is literally located off a town street. I saw an immediate need for safety improvements and training. After meeting with the club’s board, I worked out a program where I would volunteer as a trainer offering NRA courses. Funds raised would be donated back to the club. As an appointed Training Counselor, I was able to help build a training culture with a complete team of NRA certified Instructors. Funds raised help update the clubhouse, create three more 5-stand trap ranges, and build the pistol range. With training a new mentality at the club, their innovative board struck deals with local builders to dump fill dirt for berm improvements in exchange of club memberships. A major result is a new training range berm so big that you can drive a dump truck across the top of it.
Q2: What has been your local involvement through the years?
As an Eagle Scout, I was raised to strongly believe in a service-to-others theme. Due to work opportunities, I’ve had the pleasure of living in different areas of the country. One of my favorite projects was with the Greater St. Louis Area Scout Council. After reaching out to ask how I could help, I was asked to become their volunteer Shooting Sports director since the position had been vacant for three years. First stop – training. Scouts always want to work towards their Rifle and Shotgun merit badges, but they need to become NRA certified Instructors first. With an expanded Council covering MO and IL, they had tens of thousands of Scouts with few options – and a lot of worn-out firearms. Donating course time, money raised through course fees were donated back into the program with targeted funding for things like large gun safes. Frends of NRA grant requests that I wrote replaced every rifle used across five different camps.
Friends of NRA events are something I enjoy. I’ve chaired a number of them over the years, including the one held at the Great American Outdoor Show (GAOS). What a great opportunity to have fun, win guns, and contribute to our programs. This past year I attended 13 different events and gratefully welcomed attendees at all of them. Scouting is always a major beneficiary as well as other youth, hunting, and Women on Target programs. One of my favorite pictures is from the 2024 GAOS event where a contribution was made to the Dauphin County (PA) Sheriff K9 squad. Alongside the Sheriff and his deputies are other board NRA members who share this passion.
I’m active in my church community. As a Catholic, service to others is an important element. Among other things, I formed a new Knights of Columbus council at our parish, the first one in our 60-year history. The Knights have a four-point concept; lead with faith, protect your family, serve others, and defend your values. I think a majority of NRA and ORA members probably have those same inherent interests. As our council’s first Grand Knight, I have an opportunity to introduce this concept to the men of our parish.
There’s always an opportunity for service. I’m a sworn Auxiliary Police Officer in my township, a non-paid law enforcement position. It’s always fun letting a young child sit in a patrol vehicle for the first time or getting a warm thank you from a marathon runner while I direct traffic. Every Christmas Eve night my partner and I volunteer to direct traffic at churches so that other officers with young children at home can enjoy the holiday with their families.
Q3: What excites you about serving on the NRA board, what are your specific passions?
If you hadn’t figured it out yet, I’m really big into training. The Education and Training department is the foundational element of NRA. There are incredibly large opportunities to improve and expand the department, helping it grow into new areas like Defensive Shotgun and Carbine. Instructors are often the first face of the NRA, so it’s vital to support them.
The second foundational element of NRA is competitions. There is no better way to hone your shooting skills than practicing for competitions. I started shooting multi-position smallbore (.22LR) at age 11, then progressed to a state junior marksmanship team. Due to a hearing disability few know I have, I was unable to accept an invitation to join the Army’s Marksmanship Unit. Few things stop me, so I kept at it and treasure my Anschutz 1913 rifle which I used to shoot at the Nationals. All kids should have this same opportunity, and we need adults leading and teaching them. Supporting competition is vital to keeping the Second Amendment intact.
I love clubs. Where else can you meet up with like-minded people and have fun shooting. After exhibiting some experience in organizing things, I was asked by friends in PA to start the Keystone Rifle and Pistol Association, our NRA-affiliated state association. Like others on the board who are state association presidents (like my good friend Mark Vaughan), I sit on the Clubs & Associations Committee under the great leadership of fellow Pennsylvanian Maria Heil. Clubs are the backbone of the Second Amendment community, and we need to help them innovate for future generations.
Lastly, in 2019 I was asked to run for a board position by a family friend who was also a smallbore competitor. Her pitch was, “you know more about some of this stuff than a bunch of us, and we need your help to fix things.” Her son is also an Eagle Scout, so she knew what buttons to push, sigh. Always striving for improvement, the NRA 2.0 concept was something I could strongly embrace so that our great organization can rise to unprecedented heights. My baby grandson Oliver, a Junior Life member, will hopefully have the same opportunity to sit in my board seat one day.
Q4: What do you feel is a valuable component of leadership and how do you strive towards that?
To me, listening to others and building consensus to create something bigger than ourselves is the sign of a good leader. I learned a long time ago that you can never have enough friends, and we only have so long to contribute to our world. Combining this with service and commitment is a formula for success.
The NRA 2.0 concept is a good example. A core team of board members have contributed to the recent changes you are hearing about now. NRA will soar to new heights with the leadership team following the path of the NRA 2.0 concept. It’s not an easy task, especially for someone like myself who has a day job too. However, we do it for our friends and family so that when my grandson reaches my age, the Second Amendment will never have become a distant memory.
