NRA claims membership up as Selleck steps down

One of the faces of the National Rifle Association is leaving, but a lot of less-famous faces are apparently joining the organization.

Tom Selleck isn’t exactly leaving, but he has stepped down from the NRA’s board of directors. His publicist confirmed that Wednesday, right about the time impressive new membership figures were being bandied about.

Somewhere, David Hogg is cursing.

The NRA doesn’t release precise figures, and its actual membership total has long been a source of contention. The most objective gauge is the subscription levels for the NRA’s four magazines, since all new members are given a complimentary subscription.

The magazines added 350,000 subscribers between February and June of this year. That reversed two years of declines and came as the NRA became a political punching bag following the Parkland school shooting.

Selleck apparently doesn’t have much time for such casual reading. His publicist, Annette Wolf, told Trace that Selleck’s resignation is “due to his work schedule” and he was never truly “active on the board.”

The 73-year-old Selleck is the star of “Blue Bloods” and a lot of reverse-mortgage commercials.

“He has nothing to do with policy,” Wolf told Fox. “He’s never been active on the board or anything the NRA engages in. He’s almost always been a silent board member.”

And apparently a very popular one. Selleck has been an NRA member since he was 8 years old and received the most votes in the board’s 2017 election.

He’s an avid gun collector and has donated antique rifles and revolvers to the NRA’s National Firearms Museum. The question