I have read the article of fallujah regarding foreign aid that he tried to compare with the situation in our organization. Unlike the National Rifle Association which is actively supported by the members of the gun industry in the United States of America, your organization is not supported by anyone else except for a few generous entities that are both willing to shoulder our expenses everytime we will meet to discuss the developments in government and in the country as a whole. We are independent, in the sense that we do not owe any loyalty to any individual, shooting discipline, company or interest group. PROGUN is loyal to its members and we have made this commitment to fight and lobby for the interest of the FILIPINO GUN OWNERS. While we do admit that we do solicite funds through advertisements in our newsletter from gunstores, it is on the condition that we will do what we are doing now, that is to promote the interest of the members and the gunowners. However, lately, due to some developments, we do not forsee any help from our usual benefactors as our interests and theirs have crossed when we actively fought against the passage of the Firearms Control Bill. We need your help. We need your assistance in order for us to continue our struggle against those who wants our rights to be trampled upon, those who wanted the State to confiscate our firearms and those whose idea of business is to think only of their interests and not those whom they make business with.
Any kind of help will do as long as it is legal and you do it voluntarily because we will not accept any illicit or illegal items or force you to do so. You can give money or do something for free, such as documentation, intelligence, networking etc. We need pr men who will give us publicity for free. We need writers who will do our stories gratis. We need persons who will do a database on gun related crimes for this year in order for us to jumpstart our research department again and keep it working. We need people with principle and moral scruples to fight what is right and good for the FILIPINO GUNOWNER without thinking anything for his own benefit or good. Should you be interested, please do not hesitate to contact us. I hope we can help one another to keep our organization independent from those who are offering help in exchange for some strings that will attached us to them which will definitely run counter to our own interest in the future. Maraming salamat po!
Yes that is correct. We have made that choice to preserve the independence of PROGUN as favoring no particular interest group or lobby. With tha said, have made a pledge of poverty so to speak, to shun big firearms organizations, particularly sellers, from financially controlling PROGUN. But this does not deviate from our plea to accept individual support and donations, in cash or labor, without any agenda attached. As a practical matter any organization cannot survive without funding. It is in this spirit that donations and assistance are most welcome.
I understand the need to stay independent. One question though: with this ‘pledge of poverty’ approach, how can PROGUN match the anti-gun groups who are extremely well funded? They can afford to send envoys around the world and influence a change in national laws; our community has difficulty raising funds to run even a single newspaper advert.
Is support from individuals really enough?
I agree. No, it is not enough. We really need more help, financially and in kind. As you know, in any organization, funding and finances is a very sensitive issue. This will definitely be taken up in a later Progun meeting if only to clarify what exactly we need, and how the organization will be defined in the coming years. First things first is to gain a victory in these elections. Then we can move on to expansion and funding. In the meantime, your comments, suggestions, and opinions, regarding this issue of funding and how to go about it are all welcome now.
Some ideas for raising funds:
These are fine, fine ideas. Speaking from a purely consumer point-of-view, I would be especially interested in the safety training and advanced classes.
Boiledfrogs’ ideas. To add, we can form an organization equivalent to the Department of Civilian Marksmanship of the US. Since it will be difficult to get the government to do this, we, the private sector can initiate it. There are about 1.2M registered gun owners in the country. Except for the few thousand members of shooting clubs, most likely the majority may not have proper training on safe and responsible gun handling. This could counter the anti-gunners’ propaganda that “there is no such thing as a responsible gunowner”.