Hickok45 Cuts Ties with NRA

Corny gun-loving YouTuber Hickok45 and his son John recently announced their decision to part ways with the NRA. They’ll no longer accept sponsorship money from NRA, nor will they continue begging viewers to join NRA.

From the video description:

We have high hopes that the NRA will come out of all this strong, lean, and more effective; however, we’ve come to the tough decision that we can no longer take support from the NRA or continue to use our brand to ask people to join. It was not easy yesterday to tell the NRA folks we needed to part ways, but they were very professional about it and understood.

He and his son both said they just don’t feel comfortable anymore encouraging viewers to join NRA, in light of recent revelations that have exposed deep-rooted corruption within the organization.

I personally dropped my NRA membership almost 20 years ago when I learned of dirty dealing by them, even to the point of NRA pushing for gun control legislation behind the scenes — because the threat of impending doom scares citizens into sending them more money. I became a life member of GOA because they do not often compromise on gun rights — and I continue to keep a vigilant eye on them and chastise them whenever they endorse candidates which are not truly pro-gun.

This is what any member of any lobbying org should do; ensure they are truly doing the work for which you are paying them!

Sorry — back to the video. Both father and son say they “want a strong NRA” and they’re “rooting for them from the sidelines” and they will continue as NRA members. Like most of us, they don’t really know what’s happening inside the NRA structure right now, but they want viewers to know they’re not oblivious to (or ignoring) the situation.

Subscribers will see NRA plugs in upcoming videos that have already been produced but not yet published, but after that they’ll cease “plugging the NRA” unless something changes at a future date.

In true Hickok45 form, there’s a good bit of repetition and more words than necessary. But there’s good stuff throughout… such as encouragement to be active and responsible in your support of gun rights rather than simply sending money to a gun rights organization and figuring that you’d done something useful.

They also add that, now that they’ve officially cut ties with NRA, they “can speak their mind” freely about NRA without any nagging conscience about it.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.