The NRA magazines have changed for another reason.
When I started writing for them, starting with AMERICAN HUNTER in the late 1980's, they ran around 10 feature articles in each issue, along with several columns. But as gun rights issues became more critical during Bill Clinton's administration, political news started taking more of each issue's content. In recent years it even started "bumping" non-political articles from many issues of the magazines. This is because the anti-gun movement has grown over the past couple of decades, both in organization, numbers and the irrational arguments that anti-gunners call "common sense."
If the NRA magazines were commercial magazines this change wouldn't work, because too many readers would drop their subscriptions. But they're not. Instead they're part of the NRA membership package, and the political climate right now is so filled with new threats to legal gun ownership that it's imperative for the NRA to cover many issues.
As a reader, I'm not exactly thrilled with each issue of AMERICAN HUNTER and AMERICAN RIFLEMAN being dominated by political material, because like most of us I like to read about hunting and guns for entertainment, information and relaxation. (And on a more personal level, the change has cut into the market for my articles!) But I can appreciate why its happening, and as a long-time Life Member continue to make financial contributions to the NRA every year.
