Local Friends of NRA give big bash at West Hills College Golden Eagle Arena

By Ed Martin, The Leader Editor
Over 500 persons attended Saturday night's Friends of Lemoore NRA event in the West Hills Golden Eagle Arena.
Over 500 persons attended Saturday night's Friends of Lemoore NRA event in the West Hills Golden Eagle Arena.

Ever give a party and nobody came? The local chapter of the Friends of the National Rifle Association (NRA) gave a party Saturday night in the West Hills College Golden Eagle Arena, and just about everybody came.

The Lemoore Friends of the NRA held its annual fundraising dinner and auction Saturday night and judging from the turnout of nearly 500 persons, it was quite the success.

Last year’s dinner brought in over $100,000, money that the local NRA will use to promote safety and provide outreach. It’s not known how much Saturday night’s event brought in, but local organizers expect similar results.

The feature attraction, of course, was guns, and lots of them, from handguns to shotguns to semi-automatic weapons, all carefully disabled and displayed for everyone to see. Those who attended the dinner had opportunities to purchase tickets for various drawings as well as participate in a live auction that auctioned off everything from a rifles to an African seven-day safari in South Africa.

Buyers couldn’t just walk out with a gun. They’ll have to wait a minimum of days before they retrieve their guns due to background checks and certification.

Local NRA Representative Paul Rodarmel was on hand for Saturday night's event.
Local NRA Representative Paul Rodarmel was on hand for Saturday night's event.

According to Friends of Lemoore NRA, proceeds from such fundraisers are used to fund local clubs and organization as well as promote local youth programs, shooting range development projects, firearms safety training, responsible firearms ownership, competitive shooting and more. The local NRA recently helped the Lemoore Recreation Department construct a pellet-shooting range in the Cinnamon Recreation Complex.

Nationwide Friends of the NRA has held over 15,000 events since its inception in 1992, reached over 2.8 million attendees and raised over $230 million for the NRA Foundation. Lemoore’s event is one of the most productive in the NRA system.

“This is a really good turnout this year,” said Friends of the Lemoore NRA Chairman David Cain who helped to organize this year’s event and owns DC Arms, a local gun shop in Lemoore which he has operated for about 20 years. “These people are really true patriots when it comes to the second amendment and I think based on what we have here, we’re really going to have a good turnout.”

Cain told The Leader that America has a proud heritage of gun ownership and that guns are needed for protection from people in bad places and just the threat of a nation with guns can keep those bad people away.

Cain says the NRA is an often misunderstood organization. “Sometimes I think others think we’re a gun-pro toting organization that is only out to harm America and that’s not true,” Cain said. Instead he said money from events such as Saturday’s goes toward promoting gun safety and awareness.

“The monies that are raised for this event go to a lot of the shooting sports that that go on across Central California and it also goes to the improvement of a lot of the rifle ranges, and increase the safety and reliability of shooters. But 100 percent of it, when you look at it, is being able to teach the young children of tomorrow the right way to be able to use firearms, why we have them, and to be safe when you’re using them.”

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