Here is some information about the National Rifle Association banquet that Jim Hauser would like folks to protest from his March 6 letter.

This fundraising banquet is being held by Friends of NRA. This organization is nonpolitical. It is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

The money it raises goes for local grant funding in areas such as youth firearm safety and education programs, hunter education, range development and improvement, women’s training seminars and wildlife conservation efforts.

Last month, the Friends of NRA granted $240,000 here in Oregon for: 10 NRA high school scholarships, seven 4-H Junior shooting and archery programs, Oregon Paralyzed Veterans of America, The Eddie Eagle Gun Safe Program, Oregon State University, high school JROTC programs, Boy Scouts of America (Cub Scout archery and air rifle training, Boy Scout summer camp archery, shotgun and .22 rifle), ranges and gun safety programs.

The above are just a few of the organizations and programs that benefit from the dollars raised by Friends of NRA.

If one would like to protest this fundraising banquet, it’s your right. The 24 years (the better years of my life) that I served this country in the military so that one can say what they want, protest what they want, helped make it so.

Thomas Nitcher

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