NRA BANQUET RAISES ESTIMATED $20,000

The Cape Area Friends of the National Rifle Association's fund-raising banquet Thursday night at the Holiday Inn's convention center drew about 325 people and might have raised as much as $20,000.

Doug Snider, chairman of the Cape Area Friends of the NRA, said this, the 3rd annual banquet, drew as many people as their first banquet but will probably bring in more money. The funds raised will go to programs such as gun safety classes, the 4H Club, summer camps, gun ranges, the Olympic shooting team and youth hunter and youth safety programs.

Children were a major topic of discussion at the banquet. Charlton Heston, the long-time spokesperson for the NRA, gave a speech presented by video that focused on the current NRA members' responsibility to pass the "torch of freedom" to the younger generation. He said that freedom can only be assured if the right to bear arms is not denied to Americans.

The banquet's keynote speaker, Dr. David Oliver, a member of the NRA board of directors, reflected that sentiment in his own speech saying, "The NRA wants to put the flame back into that torch."

"This is the year of the children," Oliver said. "This is the year that everyone is talking about what we can do for the children. Many people have an influence on our kids. Many of them are happiest when they're eating up your money and teaching your children what they think they know is best."

The banquet was also an opportunity for some local political candidates to make contact with potential voters as both state Sen. Peter Kinder, the 27th District incumbent, 8th Congressional District candidate Jo Ann Emerson made an appearance.

Snider said 50 percent of the funds raised Thursday night will stay in the state. The organizers of the event are all members of the local NRA club, not national representatives.

"One person from each of these committees forms a different committee, somewhere like Jefferson City or Columbia someplace central like that," Snider said. "And we decide where these funds go, through a grant process. If it doesn't meet those criteria of hunter education, safety, range development, things such as that, we can't fund it."

He added that none of the money raised at the banquet would go to supporting a political candidate.

There are 525 community NRA clubs across the nation and seven in Missouri, Snider said. All of them hold banquets similar to this one.

Besides the speeches, food and drink, the Cape Area Friends of the NRA drew support from local businesses to provide door prices, auctions and drawings.