NRA Life Membership

A lot of people who are proponents of defending the right to firearms ownership have been hesitant to get a lifetime membership with the NRA due to the high cost ($1000.00). I've been an NRA member for a few years now, and wanted to spring for a full life membership, but my finances have not allowed me to do this. There is a Easy-Pay-Life (EPL) installment plan, where you can pay by credit card over a default period of 10 years ($25.00 per quarter, per year), but that with that plan, that will take me well into my late 40s. I recently did sign up for EPL, but since then, I have found a couple of ways to get a life membership much more cheaply.

The first depends on someone else - once in a while, the NRA will offer to its existing life members the opportunity to sign up a family or friend (both of these are regarded loosely by the membership office, so essentially anyone can sign you up). This is THE best promotion out there, as life membership is reduced down to only $300.00 (but this depends on an existing NRA life member sponsoring you).

The other method, which I have used, is to sign up for EPL, and then call them a few weeks later and tell them that you'd like to take advantage of the offer to convert the EPL to a lifetime membership. This will require a one-time payment of $500.00 U.S. (which is still much better than having to cough up $1000, either one-time or via installment plan). Any EPL payments will be credited against the one-time fee of $500.00. For me, I got a statue with my name on a nameplate, as thanks for the life membership, as well as my usual subscription to American Rifleman (I really liked the America's First Freedom magazine, but it would cost extra and incur some additional postage charges since I am in Canada).

I should mention that this $500.00 offer is contingent on switching from existing EPL. For 1, 3, 5 year single memberships, there is no way (that I know of) to get the $500.00 life membership. Just get your membership switched to EPL and then in a few weeks, call them and get it switched to lifetime via the one-time payment. If you don't have the cash handy, you can always do EPL for however long you want and then call them and pay the difference between what you have paid and the $500.00.

$500.00 is still a lot of money, but much better than $1000.00. I have no idea if this is a limited offer or not, but if you ever wanted to spring for an NRA Life Membership, hopefully this will save you some money.