The National Rifle Association (NRA) just brought one significant donor back into the fold. Or, at least, its reformer faction did.

In a recent video posted to gunmaker Daniel Defense’s social media accounts, founder Marty Daniel said he believes the gun-rights group is primed for a turnaround. He said he’d left the NRA in the wake of its half-decade-long corruption scandal, but now is the right time to return. He encouraged customers to do the same and vote for a slate of reformer candidates in the group’s current election.

How that reformer campaign turns out could determine if the NRA seizes its opportunity for a fresh start.

That opportunity came into focus in January. It started when former CEO Wayne LaPierre, who was at the center of the corruption allegations that dogged the organization since 2018, resigned ahead of being found liable for millions in misspent NRA funds. Then, at the end of 2024, the judge overseeing the civil case against LaPierre and other NRA leaders issued a ruling cementing a series of internal reforms but left it free of a government-appointed overseer. Finally, in January, the controversial law firm that guided the NRA’s strategy throughout the ordeal parted ways with the group.

That’s left the NRA with the chance to carve out a new path forward.

Reformers on the board, like Rocky Marshall and Phil Journey, have long advanced a specific way out of the mess. They want to replace leadership members at the center of the scandal, institute new ethical and transparency standards, then refocus on the NRA’s core mission. They believe if the group can rebuild trust with its former members, it can likely bring a substantial number of them back.

That argument has persuaded Daniel.

“The National Rifle Association has led the fight to keep and bear arms, but, as you know, they simply lost their way, and many people like me took a step back and refused to condone their behavior with our time and resources,” Daniel told customers in the video. “The message was heard loud and clear, and now change is on the way. With former leadership gone and new leaders at the helm, there’s a plan in place to revive the organization and restore trust with NRA members and all gun-owning Americans.”

Of course, the NRA likely could’ve shortened its ordeal if it had done all this back in 2018 when the corruption allegations first came to light. It did manage to fend off New York Attorney General Letitia James’s most aggressive punishment proposals, including outright dissolution. But it burned hundreds of millions in a fight that saw LaPierre ousted from leadership, all while millions of members, as well as their dues, left the group.

However, the NRA went in the direction it went over the past six years. There’s no turning back that clock. The group’s only chance is to move forward.

That won’t be an easy task.

The group’s board still isn’t totally united. While last year’s reform candidates performed well enough to make the board and convince a majority to buy into their vision during leadership elections, longtime LaPierre allies outmaneuvered them at last fall’s board meeting.

The reformer they picked to succeed LaPierre had an animal cruelty case he was involved in during college come back into the spotlight, which preceded Donald Trump canceling a rally with the NRA right before the election and will probably follow the group around for the foreseeable future.

Still, they backed Trump, and he won alongside majorities in Congress. Trump’s history of pushing for new gun restrictions in the wake of major mass shootings is a potential friction point. As are the tight margins in the House and Senate, which make major gun-rights legislation an all-but-insurmountable hill.

The political environment should provide more opportunities than pitfalls, though. Trump’s gun executive order lays out a series of possible reforms, and most gun-rights groups back his pick to lead the ATF–although his pro-gun credentials center around a speech at Gun Owners of America’s conference rather than the NRA’s gathering. If Trump follows through on enacting pro-gun reforms and the NRA can show it helped influence them, that would raise the group’s profile again.

With its scandal nearly behind it and prominent industry members returning to the fold, the group has a better chance than ever to recover. If its board can get on the same page and slowly but surely convince other former members and donors like Marty Daniel to rejoin, it can get its books back into the black and recapture its political punch.

The outcome of the board election will give us the next signal for where the NRA might end up and how quickly it could get there.