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.

After serving in the military in World War II and the Korean War, Cooper founded the American Pistol Institute (API), which offered classes for both civilians and law enforcement personnel. Cooper is considered to be a pioneer in the use of handguns. His two-handed firing technique, which was developed at a time when handguns were typically fired with one hand, is now the standard for shooters. Cooper was a prolific author during his lifetime, publishing books on firearms technique, big game hunting, as well as a politicized gun rights newsletter. The term “hoplophobia” (fear of guns) was coined by Cooper in 1962, and continues to be used by pro-gun activists. In 2001, Cooper received a lifetime appointment to the National Rifle Association’s Executive Council. He passed away in 2006 and his memorial ceremony was held the next year at the National Rifle Association Whittington Center in New Mexico. A 2011 retrospective of Cooper published in the National Rifle Association’s American Rifleman magazine declared, “No one has ever done so much for so many as John Dean Cooper.” Shooting Illustrated, another NRA publication, eulogized Cooper as “an American patriot” and “a scholar.”

Walker, an Ohio resident, became Central Ohio Chair of the Buckeye Firearms Association in 2005. She began serving as an NRA Election Volunteer Coordinator for the Ohio 12th Congressional District in 2008. She also previously served as Chairman of the Licking County Friends of the NRA. Walker is an NRA-certified concealed carry instructor and was elected to the NRA Board of Directors in 2011.

Herb Lanford is a former president of Gun Owners of South Carolina, the NRA’s state affiliate in The Palmetto State.