A California firefighter’s union is facing backlash after offering an AR-15 as the main prize in a raffle less than a week after a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school.
The Cameron Park Firefighters Association sparked outrage during their annual crab feed fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 17, when the main prize in their raffle was an AR-15, the same weapon that a gunman used to take 17 lives at a high school in Florida, CBS Sacramento reports.
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“I was devastated. I felt ill. I felt I couldn’t stay and support the event any longer,” Nancy Lugo, one of the attendees said. “It hadn’t even been a week, the families were still grieving, and we are seeing that same type of weapon being offered as a prize.”
Lugo wasn’t the only attendee to walk out of the building, where a flag was lowered at half-staff in memory of the 17 lives lost in the school shooting.
“I had no idea they were going to be auctioning off military-style assault rifles. I would have never come and supported this event had I known,” Allison Merrill said.
Deputy Chief of CalFire Scott McLean said that the auction, which is popular with hunters and outdoorsman, was planned before the shooting. Fire officials also stated that rifles have been auctioned at previous fundraisers, so it’s not a new practice. They also assured the outlet that the weapon would be taken to a gun shop for the required waiting period and background check before it would be handed over to the winner.
The auction comes less than a week after confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, pulled a fire alarm and opened fire with an AR-15, killing 17 and wounding more than a dozen. Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
The shooting, the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in the U.S. and the third deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, has prompted the topic of reformed gun laws back into the spotlight, with many of the survivors of the shooting becoming voices in the movement.
