PROGUN

PROGUN

Motto	Peaceful responsible owners of guns
Formation	1987
Type	Shooting sports and gun advocacy
Location	Philippines
Official language	English
Website	progun.ph

PROGUN is a firearms advocacy group based in the Philippines. The organization's name stands for "Peaceful Responsible Owners of Guns". It was founded in 1987^[1] to make it easier for Filipino citizens to own and carry firearms. Although it started off as a non-political group, it became heavily involved in political lobbying and advocacy after a long period of inactivity during the early 2000s.

Political lobbying

From around 2009, PROGUN involved itself with political campaigns to protect firearms rights for Filipinos. Most notably, these included:

opposition ^[2] to the House Bill No. 6776 ^[3] firearms control bill (filed on October 19, 2009);
opposition to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Versoza's proposal in 2010 to put in place an extended gun ban throughout the country.^[4]

2010 Election Gun Ban Statistics Project

As part of its efforts to block the extended gun ban, PROGUN volunteers started a Gun Ban Statistics Project to record violent crimes during the 2010 Philippine Election gun ban. The projects goal was to challenge the official PNP's claims^[5] that the ban put in place during the 2010 elections was successful and therefore should be extended permanently.

As of 9 June 2010, the project recorded 429 incidents in which there were 359 injuries and 566 fatalities.^[6]

Organizational structure

In line with Philippine law, PROGUN is governed by a board of 15 directors. After the resignation of Chairman Mike Melchor ^[7] in June 2010, leadership was taken up by President, Atty. JJ D. Mendoza, and Secretary-General, Atty. Ticky Tabujara.

The organization's membership is made up of 15,000 card-carrying members but it also claims to enjoy the support of 1.2 million 'sympathetic' licensed gun owners throughout the Philippines.^[8]

Relations with other organizations

At its inception, PROGUN was funded by the Association of Firearms & Ammunition Dealers of the Philippines, Inc. (AFAD).^[9] However, disagreements in approach to lobbying caused the two organizations to drift apart during the first decade of 2000. In 2010, AFAD backed the launch^[10] of a new firearms group, The A2S5 Coalition, which was formed to oppose the extension of the 2010 election gun ban.^[4]

During the Philippine National Police Gun Summit in June 2010, a previously unknown organization called "Total Pro-Gun Confederation" was selected to speak on behalf of the Philippine Firearms community. Its designated representative, Mr. Christopher Punla, gave a controversial speech ^[11] which appeared to mock the firearms community. PROGUN later issued a statement denying any connection with the "Total Pro-Gun Confederation", saying that it used the 'PROGUN' registered trademark "without license or authority".^[12]

External links

References

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