Friends of the NRA Dinner

Last Friday night I attended a Friends of the NRA fund raising dinner. Friends of the NRA is the NRA Foundation and it was formed so that it can "provide grants for a myriad of local and national projects in need of assistance". Fifty percent of the money raised during Friday night's dinner is granted to qualified projects within California, and the remaining proceeds go toward qualified national programs such as Youth Development, Firearm Education and Training, Range Development and Improvement, and Wildlife Conservation Efforts.


Friday night's dinner was the first that I'd ever attended and it was quite an eye opener. There are many stereotypes that the mainstream media like to portray about people who love to own guns, and enjoy the shooting sports. The people at the dinner were ordinary people, the kinds of people that you have as your neighbors. The only difference is that these folks are passionate about protecting their 2nd Amendment rights.


The money raised that night was mainly raised through the sale of dinner tickets, raffle tickets, silent auction, and a live auction. I spent a total of $90 on raffle tickets and I was very disappointed that I did not win any guns that night. For the door prizes there were three guns to be won. Among the raffle ticket prizes were also guns and other stuff like hunting paraphernalia.

Guns and other items offered as prizes for the raffle tickets.

The meal was simple: tri tip, beans, green salad, chicken, macaroni salad, and bread rolls. There was cake for dinner. Non-alcoholic drinks was part of the meal, but you had to pay for the alcoholic beverages. The Rotary Club who had a license to sell alcoholic drinks benefited from the night's dinner. They ran the no host bar that night.

The dessert!

Doug is the treasurer of the local Friends of the NRA. He has been really busy several weeks before the event, and during the dinner itself he was also one busy man, managing all the incoming and outgoing money. He was recognized for his effort and received a plaque as a show of appreciation from the NRA.

Doug and his plaque.

For the live auction, the Friends of the NRA had hired a professional auctioneer. It made the auction interesting. There were some really generous people at the dinner and everything that was on auction was bought up.

One big revolver!

Look at this baby! It is the NRA's 2007 Gun of the Year. It is Smith & Wesson 468XVR and has a 8.4 inch barrel with interchangeable compensators & Hi-VIZ green dot front sight. The stainless steel frame has an eagle and American flag engraved on the side. It was auctioned off for $1100. Doug drooled over the revolver, and he imagined his friends' envious looks if he were to own it.

These were some of the other items that were auctioned off. Doug and I did not bid for anything. I had hoped to win at least a little pistol, but no such luck that evening!

The dinner raised about $30,000, before paying the expenses involved. Not a bad first fund raising dinner for the local Friends of the NRA, if I do say so myself.