Fundraising by Friends of NRA has picked up after a lull in 2018, Cordova FNRA Chairman Gary Graham says.
While a typical FNRA fundraising event aims to gather around $100 per attendee, Cordova FNRA Banquets consistently yield over $500 per attendee, Graham said. Although the Cordova FNRA usually limits attendance at its events to 75, this year’s Sept. 4 Smoke N’ Guns Pre-Event and Saturday, Sept. 7 FNRA Banquet both drew around 90 attendees. The two events were held at the Powder House bar and grill, which Gary Graham co-owns with his wife Libbie.
In 2018, a late-running fishing season drew residents away from an Aug. 31 banquet. By pushing events back a week, Graham was able to bolster attendance. Next year’s FNRA Banquet is scheduled for Sept. 12.
This year, FNRA raffled off firearms including revolvers, shotguns, hunting rifles and a custom Ruger SR1911 pistol inscribed with the text of the Second Amendment. A silent auction offered not just weaponry but plates of pomegranate craisin scones, a Second Amendment blanket, a decanter accompanied by two lowball glasses with bullets embedded in them, and numerous other NRA-accented handicrafts.
FNRA, a non-political charity group aligned with the National Rifle Association, supports programs including Women on Target, a women’s instructional shooting workshop, and the Eddie Eagle GunSafe program for children. Events like the FNRA Banquet aim to encourage safe and orderly participation in shooting sports, Graham said.
“It’s a very worthwhile event, whether you like guns or not,” Graham said. “It teaches safety, and that’s our No. 1 goal.”
The NRA has weathered heavy criticism following a recent series of mass shootings. The organization is currently locked in a lawsuit with the city of San Francisco, which, two days after a shooting in Gilroy, Calif., passed a resolution labeling the NRA a domestic terrorist organization. Sept. 3, the NRA accused Walmart of kowtowing to “anti-gun elites” after the corporation requested that customers not bring guns into its stores.
However, these disputes seemed far-off amid the friendly hubbub of the Powder House on an evening which cemented Cordova’s status as one of FNRA’s top fundraising communities. Graham said that local FNRA supporters were not to be fooled by what he regarded as partisan misinformation.
“There are people who want to take away the Second Amendment, and we’re here to fight to keep it,” Graham said. “If somebody chooses to put down our way of life, that’s their problem. We choose to be patriotic, and we won’t apologize for that.”
