Paypal Refuses GBR-IV Raffle Ticket Sales

Note: I am late in getting this posted as I needed to calm down A LOT before writing about this.

As part of this year's Gun Blogger Fund Raising efforts to benefit Project Valour-IT, we are having a section of our fund raising raffle set up so you could buy raffle tickets on line. We included two very nice prizes, a Para GI 1911 pistol, and a $2,000 four day training session at Front Sight Academy. The pistol was purchased and donated by Kevin from The Smallest Minority, and the training was donated by Front sight Academy.

The on line ticket part of the raffle was set up and hosted by Soldiers Angels, the parent organization of Project Valour-IT. In the first three and a half days over a thousand dollars worth of tickets were sold on line. Then someone at Paypal decided to shut it down. They not only shut down the raffle ticket sales, they shut down ALL Paypal on line contributions to all areas of Soldiers Angels. Soldiers Angels had to remove the button to buy raffle tickets before Paypal would turn the account back on. Unfortunately Soldiers Angels was in the middle of a fund raising drive and it's anyone's guess just how much in donations they lost in the twelve hours that Paypal was refusing to accept donations for them.

It appears that they consider buying a raffle ticket where you might win a gun is the same thing as actually going to a FFL and buying a gun. What is actually going on is people are making a donation to Soldiers Angels and Project Valour-IT, and for every $10 they spend they get a raffle ticket that might win them a gun. That's quite a big difference.

From Kevin:

"So where does that leave us? Well, you can call Soldiers' Angels and do a transaction over the phone. During normal business hours (PST) you can call (626) 529-5114, or you can call their voicemail service any time at (615) 676-0239, leave them a callback number and they'll get back to you - probably the less expensive option, timewise. It's not as convenient as a mouse click, but it beats snail-mailing a check."

The bad news is it's a pain to have to do it this way, but the good news is that Paypal doesn't get a percentage of the money spent on tickets.

If you'd like to call Paypal and discuss why inter-species offspring should not be put in policy making decisions, or anything else along those lines, their Customer Service phone number is (402) 935-2050.

For Kevin's full post and a lot more information about this, it's here.

Update Here's the list so far of bloggers that are writing about this:

Maj. Chuck Zeigenfuss at From My Position, On the Way! - Paypal is asshats
Laughingwolf at Blackfive - Step Up for Valour-IT, Especially as PayPal Won't
Blackfive at Blackfive - Anti-gun PayPal Shuts Down Soldiers' Angels Contributions
BillT at Castle Argghhh! - How Innnnnteresting
Alan at Snarkybytes - Paypal: Anti-Gun
Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell - PayPal's Gun Policies
Kahr40 at From the Barrel of a Gun - Paypal is anti-gun
Kevin S. at Brown Valley Kingdom - Paypal shows their ass
Albert A Rasch at The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles - It's About Time We Pushed Back!
Major C at A Major's Perspective - Important Information You Need to Know
SayUncle - PayPal: Fear of guns overrides helping soldiers
Tam at View from the Porch - Figures
Joe Huffman at The View from North Central Idaho - Quote of the Day--Kevin Baker
Phelps at The Everlasting Phelps - PayPal Hates Soldiers
Jim at The Travis McGee Reader - A current outrage
Morgan at My Two Cents Worth - Outrage via PayPal
Derek at The Packing Rat - Paypal = Bigots
Jennifer at In Jennifer's Head - PayPal and Guns
Pamibe - PayPal vs. Soldier's Angels
Firehand at Irons in the Fire - So PayPal is so anti-gun that they'll screw over Soldier's Angels
Musings of the Geek with a .45 - That's Quite Enough of PayPal
falfenix of Insert witty title here - Sometimes you just can't win
Some Soldier's Mom - PayPal is Anti-Gun
Stephanie's Blog - PayPal is Anti-Gun
Ride Fast and Shoot Straight - PayPal is an evil, eBay anti-gun minion
Caleb at Gun Nuts Media - PayPal cuts off donations to veteran’s charity group
Russell at Solarvoid - Gah, stupid Paypal
Sailorcurt of Captain of a Crew of One - Paypal and the Geek
US Citizen at Traction Control - PayPal is no Pal to Soldiers
Top of the Chain - Paypal = Bovine Fecal Material
Dirtcrashr at Anthroblogogy - Pay-Pooper is Not Your Pal
Linoge of Walls of the City - paypal sucks
Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes - Some People's Children
Hazmat at Thunder River Home - Gotta Love That PayPal
Evyl Robot Soapbox - Paypal is Anti?
The High Road - at least three threads

LuckyGunner.Com Joins the Rendezvous

I just got an email from Brian at LuckyGunner.com and not only is LuckyGunner going to help sponsor this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous, Brian is also planning to attend in person! He says he's looking forward to hanging out with a bunch of fellow gun nuts!

If you are looking for ammo, be sure to have a look at their website. Unlike some places, if they list it on the site, they have it in stock. No worries about ordering something and having it end up as backordered, and your money tied up until the backorder is finally filled.

If you'd like to meet Brian in person, the Rendezvous is the place to be!

Rendezvous Blog Sidebar Logo

It's taken me WAY too long to get this logo up so you can use it on blog sidebars to link to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous blogsite. Graphics/website wizard Rob Allen of Sharp As A Marble put this logo together for us a while back, along with a very cool new header for the Rendezvous blogsite. Thanks, Rob, beautiful job!

Unfortunately I haven't managed to get the new header into the GBR template in the right place where it would look right. Trial and error eventually gets me there in HTML, and eventually I'll figure it out.

Anyhow, here's the logo. The Gun Blogger Rendezvous URL is

http://gunbloggers.blogspot.com/

Some assembly required.......

More "Who's Gonna Be There.......

I've been getting in a steady stream of registrations for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, so here's a few more bloggers you will be able to meet in person if you go:

D.W. Drang of The Clue Meter

Miss Elain-eous of Bearcat's Spin

Azreel of Free Spirit Mind

John O'C. of the Gun Counter forum

Benjamin of The Reasonable Nut

For those of you who have included a donation to Project Valour-IT with you registration, we all thank you for your help, it's a very worthy cause.

BTW: Miss Elain-eous of Bearcat's Spin is just getting her blog up and running, so why not stop by and leave a comment of welcome?

On Line Raffle Ticket Sales

Hey! Wanna Win One of THESE?
On Line Raffle Ticket Sales Now Open!

That's ParaUSA's new GI Expert entry-level 1911. The specs are:

Caliber: .45 ACP
Barrel: 5 inches, stainless steel
Twist: 1 in 16 inches, left-hand
Action: Single-action, Semi-automatic
Sights: Dovetail Fixed, 3-White Dot
Receiver: Carbon Steel
Trigger: Medium length
Hammer: Skeletonized Spur
Magazine: 8-round with removable base pad (two provided with pistol)
Overall Length: 8.5 inches
Height: 5.75 inches
Weight: 39 ounces
Finish: Covert Black Para Kote™
Stocks: Checkered Polymer
Safeties: Slide Lock, Internal Firing Block, Grip
Additional Features: Lowered and flared ejection port, beveled magazine well, flat mainspring housing, grip safety contoured for spur hammer
MSRP: $599

It looks like a good, solid piece with just enough enhancements to make it a great shooter.

Remember, THIS GUN WILL BE FIRED AT THE RENDEZVOUS. We'll try to clean it up a bit before we pass it on to the winner!

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS
TICKET SALES ARE NOW OPEN!!

Soldier's Angels is running the on-line ticket sales ($10 each, no limit!), and there is also a chance to win a four day training course from the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute worth $2,000!

Raffle Details:

Drawing will be on Saturday evening, September 12th at the
Gun Blogger Rendezvous
at the Silver Legacy Hotel in Reno, Nevada.

The winner need not be present to win.
(But you ought to be anyway!)

It is up to the online raffle ticket purchaser to verify that they can legally receive and own this pistol where they live, and the winner must be a resident of the United States. If they cannot legally own this pistol, they are automatically disqualified from the raffle, and there is no substitution or other prize to be awarded. All decisions are final. Raffle tickets sold at the Rendezvous, and raffle tickets sold online will be combined in the drawing.

Important: To win a gun in the raffle, make sure you can legally own it before you buy a ticket.

On-Line ticket sales END on Friday Sept. 4th. at midnight!
If you want to win one of the many, many other prizes being given away, you either have to attend, or you'd better know someone who is! ;-)

Major kudos to Kevin Baker of The Smallest Minority and Kerby Smith of Para USA for their help in supporting the Gun Blogger Rendezvous and Project Valour-IT!

---

Note: The above post was shamelessly stolen from Kevin because:

1. I'm lazy
2. It's Hot
3. It's late
4. I have no shame......

Front Sight Donates $2000 Training to GBR-IV

I just got an e-Mail from Dr. Ignatius Piazza, founder and head guy from Front sight Firearms Training Institute, and he confirms that he will be donating a $2,000 dollar four day training course to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous for inclusion in our Project Valour-IT fund raising Raffle. For this we owe him a big "Thanks!"

I am trying to convince Dr. Piazza to try to attend at least part of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous so we can meet him in person and he can answer any questions we may have about his training programs. He sounds like an interesting guy and I'd like to meet him in person some day.

If you are planning on attending the Rendezvous and would also like to meet him in person, why not send him an email and let him know? info@frontsight.com is an email address he follows, so if enough of us ask, maybe we can pry him out of Las Vegas and get him to Reno for at least part of the Rendezvous? You never know.......

Who's Gonna Be There......

The Gun Blogger Rendezvous is just eight weeks away, and some of you are still on the fence as to if you are going to attend or not. The Rendezvous is different from most events, as it is the attendees themselves that are the reason to attend.

Here's a partial list of the attendees for this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous. I am SURE I've left some folks off, so if you are going and you're not on the list, leave me a comment and I'll get you on the list.

So who's going to be there, you ask?

Here's a partial list, and new names will be added as we get closer to the Rendezvous.

Planning to Attend:

KeeWee, from KeeWee's Corner

Phil & David, from Random Nuclear Strikes

US Citizen, from Traction Control

Ride Fast & the Commandress, from Ride Fast - Shoot Straight

Mr. & Mrs. JimmyB, the Conservative UAW Guy

Lou from Mad Gun

Derek from The Packing Rat

Rachel Parson from the NRA

D.W. Drang from The Clue Meter

EJ from Engineering Johnson

Cap'n Bob & Damsel

Alan Gura

Mark Knapp from Firearms Lawyer

Maj. Chuck Ziegenguss from From My Position - On the way and founder of Project Valour-IT.

Kevin from The Smallest Minority

Dirt Crashr, from Anthroblogogy

Chris & Mel Byrne, from The Anarchangel

Uncle, From Say Uncle

Larry Weeks, from Brownell's

Andy and Lance from HiCap Gun Works

and, of course, me.....

There are a number of folks hoping to be able to attend, but not sure either way quite yet. There is a possibility we may see our first attendees from the UK, as I've gotten a couple of emails regarding registering in Euros and so forth, so keep your fingers crossed. We might even see some folks from Holland, at least briefly, as there are a few coming over to Las Vegas for the USPSA Nationals being held the same weekend.

We've still got room for lots more folks, so get off your "Donkey-like creature" and get your registrations in ASAP. It's going to be the best GBR yet, and by a long ways, so you really will kick yourself if you don't go. More range time, warmer weather, Alan Gura, The NRA, National Shooting Sports Federation, All you can eat pizza feed, at least three guns to win, lots of door prizes, and plenty of things to do for the family members not quite so gung-ho for gun stuff.

There are even some more surprises coming up to be announced. I am waiting for confirmation, but there's a pretty good chance there's more neat stuff and a some big announcements yet to come!

SEE YOU IN RENO ! ! !

BTW: All bloggers automatically get press credentials. If you are from a newspaper, magazine, radio, or TV station, maybe, maybe not...........

Hi-Point Carbine For GBR-IV Raffle

Charlie Brown, the head guy over at MKS Supply/Charter Arms/Hi-Point, has donated a brand new Hi-Point 9mm. carbine to the raffle at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. The below picture is of the YET UN-ANNOUNCED new Hi-Point carbine! Official announcement will be around the end of the month, but Charlie has said that I can blog about it even before it is officially announced to the media.

The Brand New Hi-Point 9mm. Carbine.

I don't have a lot of information on the new carbine yet, but the primary difference is the new stock. The main mechanical parts are essentially the same (identical?) to the current 9mm. carbine.

Charlie did give me a little more advance info though, as after the 9mm. is rolled out, a .40 caliber version will not be too far behind. Even more exciting, though, is that they are looking into a version in .45ACP! How cool is that! I WANT ONE..............