One of Donald Trump’s biggest and most controversial Pennsylvania-based supporters, has assumed the top job at the National Rifle Association, a move that could have major political implications for the commonwealth and beyond.

Bill Bachenberg, the owner of an Allentown-area shooting range and a major Trump fundraiser, was elected NRA president by the organization’s board last week. He is looking to move the organization past its previous scandals and reinvigorate it for the 2026 election.

Bachenberg was previously the group’s first vice president, and made a run earlier this year for chair of the state Republican Party, ultimately losing out to state Sen. Greg Rothman of Cumberland County.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had some problems at the NRA,” Bachenberg told PennLive in an interview. “We need to own up to them, and we now need to move forward.”

The NRA spent several years making headlines for the foibles of its previous leadership, particularly former CEO Wayne LaPierre, who was accused of corruption and misuse of NRA funds. A civil proceeding in New York found that LaPierre had spent $11 million of the nonprofit’s funds on private flights in just three years, and issued $135 million in contracts to a vendor that provided him with exotic vacations and yachting trips.

At the same time, the group’s membership declined significantly, numbering just under 3.9 million in 2023, according to a legal filing in the corruption case, a drop of over 1.5 million members in five years, sapping the NRA’s revenues and political campaign spending. Public opinion polling showed the group’s approval rates sinking.

“We’ll build it back even stronger,” Bachenberg said, stressing that the organization now has much heftier ethics controls and whistleblower protection policies.

“The past is behind us, and now it’s time to regrow the organization,” he said. “When I ran, I ran on transparency, trust, and integrity.”

The NRA is also looking at a larger base of gun owners than it was a few years ago, given that millions of Americans bought a gun for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not all gun owners align with the NRA. A majority of Americans support stricter gun laws in a broad sense, according to Gallup polling averages, although this varies significantly by the specific policy.

The NRA’s stance on gun violence laws has become more hardline in recent years. Polling indicates, for instance, that roughly two-thirds of gun owners support so-called “red flag” laws that would allow police to temporarily confiscate someone’s firearms if a court found they were a risk to themselves or others. Democrats in Pennsylvania’s legislature have advanced such measures, but have been blockaded by Republicans.

The NRA had supported red flag measures several years ago, but the head of the group’s political campaign arm recently lambasted such laws as fundamental violations of the Second Amendment.

Not everything has to be about policy issues, Bachenberg said, stressing the success of the NRA’s gun safety programs for children and its non-lethal self-defense courses that don’t involve guns, all of which help to bolster support without the hard political edge.

“When you’ve got responsible gun ownership, you’re teaching that and you’re teaching the kids to be safe, it is political because the legislators want to know what we’re doing to protect the general public,” Bachenberg said.

But there’s no shying away from electoral politics, of which Bachenberg is no stranger.

Bachenberg was one of Trump’s largest donors and a key fundraiser through the group Sportsmen for Trump. He was also one of Pennsylvania’s “fake electors” who signed on to vote for Trump in the Electoral College in case Joe Biden’s 2020 win was overturned. In addition, he went to great lengths attempting to validate Trump’s unproven fraud claims — ultimately being included in a Congressional subpoena as part of an investigation into election interference.

“We’ve got a major election coming up in 2026 to allow President Trump to continue what he’s doing. The NRA is going to be there, especially the House races,” Bachberberg said, voicing fears that a Democratic Congress would neuter Trump’s agenda.

“We’re already gearing up. We know what’s at stake here, and we cannot let President Trump be a two-year President,” Bachenberg continued.

That effort, he said, is helped by recent gun-control efforts in liberal-leaning states such as Massachusetts that Bachenberg described as “draconian,” and which serve as examples of what gun owners have to be afraid of.

“Some individuals think that while President Trump’s in the White House, we have nothing to fear,” Bachenberg said. “We’ve got a lot to fear. The other side’s adapting to the current climate, political climate, and if we become complacent, we lose.”