After attending film school at the University of Southern California, Milius became a prominent writer and director of motion pictures. Milius-directed movies include “Conan the Barbarian,” “Red Dawn,” and the Emmy winning “Rough Riders” TV movie about Teddy Roosevelt. He also contributed as a writer to “Apocalypse Now,” “Jaws,” and “Dirty Harry.” Commenting on conservative themes in his film “Red Dawn,” where a group of American teenagers take on communist invaders, Milius said, “I was the only person in Hollywood who would dare do this movie. Hollywood is very left wing and I believe in all that rugged individualism hogwash. I knew one thing that would happen. I knew Hollywood would condemn me, that I would be regarded as a right-wing warmonger from then on.” Milius has referred to himself as a “zen anarchist” and once told producer Dino De Laurentiis (who objected to the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Conan the Barbarian”), “There is only one Nazi on this team. And that is me. I am the Nazi.” When he was commissioned to write the first draft of “Dirty Harry,” Milius insisted on payment upfront in the form of a $2,000 gun.

Larry Craig served as a Member of Congress from 1981 to 2009. Born in Council, Idaho in 1945, Craig served in the Idaho National Guard from 1970-1972. He began his political career by serving as a Republican Idaho State Senator beginning in 1974. After serving three terms in the state senate, Craig was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980. He then went on to serve ten years in the House and 18 years in the Senate. Craig’s political career was derailed when his 2007 arrest for lewd conduct in an airport bathroom became national news. He initially said he would resign, but later decided to serve out the remainder of his term. While serving in the Senate, Craig was one of the gun lobby’s most important allies, shepherding numerous pieces of NRA-backed legislation into law. In 2006, he received the NRA Institute for Legislative Action’s highest honor. Chris Cox, the executive director of NRA-ILA, called Craig an “eloquent and fearless champion of the Second Amendment.”

U.S. Representative Don Young was born in California in 1933 and moved to Alaska in 1959. Prior to entering politics, Young made his living doing construction work, mining, trapping and fishing. Before entering national politics in 1973, He served as mayor of Fort Yukon, and as an Alaskan state senator and representative. Young is one of the most senior members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) routinely include him in their “most corrupt” list. Young, who once suggested the “Artic National Wildlife Preserve” be named the “Artic Oil Reserve,” has also appeared on the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) “Dirty Dozen” list for his anti-environment views.

Karl Malone spent 18 years in the NBA playing for the Utah Jazz, where he was nicknamed “The Mailman.” After winning a college championship with Louisiana Tech University, Malone was drafted by the Jazz in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft. One of the most dominant power forwards to ever play in the league, Malone was a two-time NBA MVP and a 14-time NBA All-Star. Malone, the second leading scorer in NBA history, was known for his dynamic style of play with Jazz teammate/point guard John Stockton.

Coy, a resident of Adrian, Michigan, was first elected to the NRA board of directors in 1998. He previously served as a Treasurer with the Lewanee County Friends of the NRA, an NRA Election Volunteer Coordinator, and an Ambassador for the NRA’s Heritage Society. He has also been a member of the NRA Shotgun and Range Development Committee and the NRA Endowment. He currently serves on the NRA Finance and Audit Committees. Coy is an NRA-certified firearms instructor and a federal firearms license holder (FFL). He is a CPA and tenured professor of accounting at Adrian College.

Workman, a resident of North Bend, Washington, served three terms on the NRA board of directors until 2002. He is the communications director for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, a senior editor of Gun Week magazine, a senior editor at TheGunMag.com, and the “Seattle Gun Rights Examiner” at the examiner.com. Workman is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Tony Makris is the President of the Mercury Group, Inc. a subsidiary of the larger Oklahoma City-based lobbying and communications firm Ackerman McQueen. The National Rifle Association has been one of Ackerman McQueen’s clients for over 30 years.

After receiving a B.A. from Rhodes College, Chris Cox worked as a legislative aide to U.S. Representative John Tanner (D-TN) and as a lobbyist. He began working for the National Rifle Association in 1995 as a federal liaison in the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). Cox was promoted to Deputy Director of the Federal Affairs Division in 2000 before taking over as the Executive Director of NRA-ILA in 2002. He develops and executes political campaign and legislative initiatives, coordinates national advertising and direct-mail programs and has administrative responsibility over ILA’s $20 million budget. Cox also serves as chairman of the NRA’s political action committee, the “Political Victory Fund.”

Clayton Williams, Jr. grew up in Fort Stockton, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station in 1954 with a degree in animal husbandry and then served in the U.S. Army. In 1957, he followed in the business of his father, beginning in the oil fields of West Texas as a lease broker. Many of his companies were petroleum-related with interests in the exploration and production of natural gas and transportation and extraction of natural gas and natural gas liquids. In 1993, he took Clayton Williams Energy, Inc. public. Williams has also dabbled in politics, and made an unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial bid in Texas in 1990. By his own account, Williams has donated a total of more than $3 million to the National Rifle Association. He and his wide Modesta were inducted into the NRA’s Golden Ring of Freedom in 2013, a small circle of major donors. He once declared, “The enemies of the National Rifle Association are enemies of mine.”

Wayne LaPierre has worked as a government activist and lobbyist since receiving a M.A. from Boston College. He began working for the National Rifle Association in 1978 as a state liaison in the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). LaPierre would become Executive Director of the NRA-ILA in 1986 before taking over the top position at the NRA in 1991. As Executive Vice President, LaPierre is in charge of the NRA’s 76 member Board of Directors and directs the organization’s policy. LaPierre has been an outspoken hardliner on gun rights and is no stranger to extreme rhetoric. In 1995 he called federal law enforcement agents “jack-booted thugs” and accused Bill Clinton of having “blood on his hands” for his support of gun control measures. LaPierre has mobilized the National Rifle Association against Democratic nominees for President in 2004, 2008, and 2012 presidential elections.

Between 2008 and 2010, the NRA paid LaPierre compensation in an amount ranging from $948,858 and $1,263,101 per year.