SNAP POLL: FUNDING YOUR OWN NATIONAL ORGANISATION

**Wanderin' Zero** · 18-10-2015, 10:26

Everyone,

The idea has been floated in some quarters of imposing a mandatory annual fee on all section 16 and 17 licence holders in order to fund a national rights organisation (our equivalent of an NRA, although not necessarily with the same political posture) to deal with the various issues that relate to firearm owners. The reality is that for all their effort neither SAGA nor GOSA are adequately funded to enable them to truly carry out their missions and objectives. The idea would be that the national organisation would represent the interests of all firearm owners (while at the same time staying out of the jurisdiction of that which relates strictly to sport shooting, hunting, collecting and so forth unless it is requested to address a specific issue in that context) and that it would engage in various matters, including a massive public relations campaign to correct the many misperceptions there are around firearm ownership, appoint people to carry out the necessary research in relation to firearm ownership, to fund people to be able to interact with politicians and influence brokers on a full-time basis, to help fix the broken CFR system, to assist members with licensing issues… And so forth, practically without end.

The reality is the voluntary donation system that has been applied to date simply does not raise the type of money necessary in order to have a truly effective national organisation to properly represent the interests of firearm owners across the board. The result is that, for all the effort of all people concerned (and many people have worked extremely hard), we are far off from achieving what needs to be done and the primary reason for that is a lack of sufficient funding. We can only achieve what needs to be achieved if everybody is willing to commit to assist in achieving the necessary funding and financial goals.

While a lot of detail that would need to be worked out, assuming that such a national organisation is created, would you be willing to have to pay R 500 once per annum (and it would only apply once, regardless of how many activities you are involved in) in order to fund that organisation?

Let us hear what you think.

Edit: please distribute the link widely. We'd like to hear as many views as there are out there and get as many votes as we can on the subject.
Edit: Thread title changed to make it more accurate. There will probably be a more comprehensive survey down the line.
Edit: "NRA" removed from thread title. From now on this will be referred to as the "National Organisation Initiative" or "NOI"

**Brendank** · 18-10-2015, 10:33

Yes. IMHO the fees could be added to SADPA or SAPSA annual subs as a matter of course.

**JoeDijeaux** · 18-10-2015, 10:41

What if you gave the money to GOSA? No need to reinvent the wheel.

**Kreefstert** · 18-10-2015, 10:46

I can bite on that.

**Wanderin' Zero** · 18-10-2015, 10:47

Originally Posted by JoeDijeaux

What if you gave the money to GOSA? No need to reinvent the wheel.

GOSA is the subject of voluntary donations. It's not even a beginning of not enough.

**karoo.vellies** · 18-10-2015, 10:56

Think its a good idea, would definitely support it

DS · 18-10-2015, 11:01

WZ would it not be beneficial to have the added benefit of compiling and managing a combined and single database of sport shooting and hunting and collecting event participation by individual members.

Also include a corporate or Dealer and Distributor membership fee. For example a Distributor and Hunting/Sport Shooting/Collector Association fee of R5000 per annum and a single dealer fee of R1000 per annum per retail outlet.

There can be an option for non sport shooting and/or hunting and/or collector firearms owners to join with benefits for an amount less than the R500 (R250?) that the abovementiond members would pay.

**Socrates** · 18-10-2015, 11:24

What about a "Tax" on firearms and ammunition? The importers and manufacturers add the "tax" to the firearms and ammunition and pay the equivalent to the "NRA". It will be easier to get all the importers together than to get all the dealers to sit around the same table. The benefit of a "tax" is that everyone who buys ammo and firearms contributes to the fight. Secondly, if the said tax is uniform, it won't affect competitive business.

**Wanderin' Zero** · 18-10-2015, 11:29

Originally Posted by Khumba

WZ would it not be beneficial to have the added benefit of compiling and managing a combined and single database of sport shooting and hunting and collecting event participation by individual members.

Also include a corporate or Dealer and Distributor membership fee. For example a Distributor and Hunting/Sport Shooting/Collector Association fee of R5000 per annum and a single dealer fee of R1000 per annum per retail outlet.

There can be an option for non sport shooting and/or hunting and/or collector firearms owners to join with benefits for an amount less than the R500 (R250?) that the abovementiond members would pay.

Khumba, all of these would be options in time IMHO.

**Wanderin' Zero** · 18-10-2015, 11:32

Originally Posted by Socrates

What about a "Tax" on firearms and ammunition? The importers and manufacturers add the "tax" to the firearms and ammunition and pay the equivalent to the "NRA". It will be easier to get all the importers together than to get all the dealers to sit around the same table. The benefit of a "tax" is that everyone who buys ammo and firearms contributes to the fight. Secondly, if the said tax is uniform, it won't affect competitive business.

Its an idea that's been floated but would be very admin intensive. We need something relatively simple to start with. These other options may be workable a little further down the line.