Ready, aim... raffle: Youth organization's decision to raffle AR-15 rifle is alarming
When I played baseball many decades ago, I remember going door to door in my neighborhood selling magazine subscriptions to raise money for our Little League team. When our child was in Brownies, we helped sell boxes and boxes of Thin Mints and Tagalongs to relatives, friends, and co-workers. Auctions, fundraising dinners, car washes, bake sales — there are hundreds of creative ways to raise money for nonprofits, churches and after school programs.
Now there is a new, big ticket item some groups are raffling off: a semi-automatic rifle.
The East Henderson Youth Football and Cheer (EHYFC) organization is selling raffle tickets for a chance to own a FN-15 Patrol Carbine. The reviews for this rifle are complimentary. According to an article in Pew Pew Tactical “Everything about the FN 15 lives up to what you would expect. The fit and finish are outstanding, the parts run flawlessly, and even the branding is subtle but sexy.”
“Sexy” is a typical marketing ploy used by advertisers to sell everything from cars to cigarettes. As someone who knows what it feels like to be shot at close range, I find nothing sexy about an AR-15 style rifle. It was the weapon of choice in 11 of the most horrific and deadly mass shootings in the past 10 years, including the 20 young school children and six educators slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; 17 students killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and 19 students and two teachers gunned down at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last spring.
EHYFC serves kids ages 5-12, and according to its Facebook page is “helping our youth build character, sportsmanship, and self-confidence.” These are praiseworthy goals and organizations like EHYFC need funds for facilities, uniforms and equipment. Yet, I find it highly ill-advised for young children and their parents to hock a manila folder full of $5 raffle tickets for a comparable weapon used last May in the third deadliest school shooting in American history. If this had happened in Hendersonville, not Uvalde, would the organizers of this raffle put the FN-15 Carbine up as its prize, or has the country become numb to the mounting daily body count due to gun violence.
There is nothing illegal about this raffle, and EHYFC is not affiliated with Henderson County Public Schools (HCPS). As the organizers point out, the winner of the raffle will have to pass a background check in order to claim the prize at the organization’s Homecoming Game event on Oct. 1
Unfortunately, the drawing is still slated to take place on school grounds at an HCPS football stadium. HCPS would do well to reevaluate their facilities' user agreements to ensure outside organizations are no longer permitted to hold events on school grounds advertising age-inappropriate substances and materials such as alcohol, tobacco and firearms. Guns are not allowed on school property. Why should it be permissible to raffle a gun off on school grounds, especially when firearms are the leading cause of death among children?
In June, a Rutherford County high school’s wrestling team held a raffle for an AR-15 style gun. Organizers suspended the fundraiser after receiving several complaints citing safety concerns. Despite calls to suspend the Henderson County raffle, EHYFC didn’t back down. As a matter of fact, the story was picked up by FOX, and EHYFC is reaping the rewards from online raffle sales by gun lovers nationwide.
I’m glad the kids are getting the equipment they need, but I’m concerned about the glorification and normalization of raffling a weapon that is built for one primary purpose: to kill as many people in as short of time as possible.
EHYFC has successfully promoted an AR-15 raffle for three consecutive years. Last year the winner walked home with an Anderson Manufacturing AR-15, or as it was tastelessly promoted on its Facebook page, “a cordless hole puncher.” I’m guessing someone had a good laugh when they came up with this phrase. I wonder if that person would feel the same way if it was their terrified child whose head was nearly decapitated by an AR-15 weapon as they hid in their classroom last spring in Uvalde.
While I fully support youth sports and program’s stated mission to provide "a structured, safe and secure environment for children to learn life skills," I don't support children, parents and nonprofits selling raffle tickets for a weapon that has shattered the safety, security and mental health of thousands of students and families in communities across the country. I feel like we are raffling off a little bit of our humanity.
John Owens is Co-Lead of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in Western North Carolina. He was shot and nearly killed in 2005 and sustained a spinal cord injury.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Ready, aim... raffle: Youth organization's decision to raffle AR-15 rifle is alarming
