An Open Letter to the NRA Leadership and the Competitive Shooting Community

By Lieutenant Colonel, Dave Cloft, US Army (ret), however not authored by one person, but by many.

This letter represents the voices of active and former competitive shooters from across the country. After attending the 2025 CMP Prone Nationals, we came together—shooters who’ve stood shoulder to shoulder on both NRA and CMP firing lines—because we believe this moment demands more than silence. It demands leadership, unity, and a return to mission.

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):

We, the competitors, spectators, and lifelong fans of marksmanship, have already voted—with our feet, our wallets, and our participation. We want a future with meaningful national championships, access to historic national trophies, and a legitimate path to international teams like the Palma, Dewar, Pershing, and Roberts.

That future belongs under the stewardship of the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP).

It’s time to return the heart of competitive shooting—and the national trophies—to the national matches at Camp Perry.

The Legacy We Inherited: Smallbore and Fullbore

American competitive rifle shooting—both smallbore and fullbore—has deep roots. From the Critchfield Course of Fire in smallbore prone to the historic Palma Match at Creedmoor in 1876, these disciplines have shaped American marksmanship for over a century. The National Rifle Association once championed this tradition. It published The American Rifleman to celebrate excellence on the range, not just to sell gear.

Those were the golden days—when 700+ shooters showed up for smallbore prone and the best marksmen in the world were household names in our community. When being a rifleman meant being respected.

But somewhere along the way, the mission was lost.

Camp Perry: America’s Historic Home of Marksmanship

Since 1903, Camp Perry has symbolized the very best in rifle competition. President Theodore Roosevelt himself tied good citizenship to capable marksmanship—and that belief gave rise to the National Matches.

Today, those echoes of excellence are fading.

What once was a unified front for national competition has fractured. The NRA and CMP split, and the result has been two rival “nationals,” confusion for new shooters, a drop in attendance, and deep division in the sport.

We call this split the Great Divorce—and the cost has been catastrophic.

CMP: Legally Mandated. Morally Committed. Mission-Focused.

Let’s not forget: the CMP is not just another organization. It is the legal and historic successor to the U.S. Army’s Director of Civilian Marksmanship (DCM). When the CMP was privatized in 1996, Congress gave it a clear mandate in U.S. Code Title 36: train civilians, promote marksmanship, and conduct national-level competitions.

The NRA has no such legal mandate.

CMP is not a side hustle. CMP is the mission.

The National Trophies Belong to the Sport—Not to the NRA

The national trophies—the Palma, the Critchfield, the Andrus, and so many others—are not private property. They are symbols of national excellence, donated for the purpose of being contested and earned by the best marksmen in America.

Yet these trophies remain under NRA control, even when the organization no longer reliably hosts the competitions that give them meaning.

We remember the 2011 World Long Range Championships in Brisbane, when the NRA refused to release the Palma Trophy for international competition. That single act embarrassed our nation and deeply offended our Australian hosts—who, 14 years later, still haven’t forgotten it.

This isn’t about possession. It’s about principle. These trophies belong to reside where the sport is thriving—not gathering dust in storage, and then abused annually at great expense and stupidity, while held hostage by organizational ego.

Decline by Neglect: A Sport in Crisis

We’ve been shooting for decades—some of us for over 60 years. We’ve watched the decline firsthand.

• In the early 2000s, the NRA Smallbore Nationals drew nearly 300 prone competitors.

• This year (2025)The NRA could barely attract 43 shooters in total for Smallbore Prone and F-Class SBR.

That’s not a national championship.

That’s a club match.

That’s not a misfire.

That’s an institutional failure.

Meanwhile, international events like the 2025 Bisley Prone Long Range Championships drew nearly 800 shooters—proving the sport is alive and well where it’s nurtured.

CMP Has Earned the Right to Lead

While the NRA has pivoted almost entirely to politics, the CMP has quietly, professionally rebuilt the shooting community:

• CMP Smallbore Nationals now regularly draw 100 competitors in prone and F-SBR, Three-position boasted 306 competitors including many Olympic, NCAA and junior athletes who are the future of our sport. Meanwhile Pistol had over 200 and there were concurrent air rifle and air pistol matches occurring indoors at the phenomenal Gary Anderson Competition Center.

• Electronic targets, fast scoring, and friendly professional staff make the events efficient and enjoyable.

• Camp Perry’s infrastructure, lodging, and range capacity are unmatched.

• CMP’s junior pipeline is working, giving youth clear access to advanced competition.

CMP doesn’t make excuses.

They run matches. They serve shooters. They honor tradition.

And they’ve earned the trust of a new generation.

It’s Time to Work Together—Not Against Each Other

We are not anti-NRA. Many of us are life members. We support the NRA’s mission of defending the Second Amendment.

But if that’s the NRA’s primary focus, then the responsible thing is to support, not compete with, CMP’s stewardship of marksmanship.

Let the CMP run the matches.

Let the CMP award the national trophies.

Let the NRA sponsor, promote, and defend the sport—but not hold it back.

One Sport. One Standard. One Future.

The shooting community is already small. We can’t afford parallel tracks, redundant championships, or a divided culture.

Young shooters today have never experienced the thrill of walking down Commercial Row at a fully attended Camp Perry. Some don’t even know what we’ve lost. That’s a tragedy—but not an irreversible one.

We can still fix this.

A Call for Honor: Return the Trophies. Restore the Unity.

We respectfully ask the leadership of the NRA to take one simple but meaningful step toward reunification:

Transfer custody of the national smallbore and fullbore trophies to the CMP, where they can once again be earned at the National Matches at Camp Perry—the way they were intended to be.

The CMP is ready.

The shooters are ready.

The future is ready.

Now it’s the NRA’s turn.

Let’s get back to the mission.

Let’s get back to the tradition.

Let’s get back to honoring the rifleman.

Signed,

Competitors past and present, from both CMP and NRA matches, speaking with one voice—for the good of the sport.