An under-10 softball team in Kentucky is facing backlash after it announced that it plans to raffle an AR-15.
A raffle currently underway in Kentucky is raising money for the Central Kentucky Batcats, an under-10 girls’ softball team, and prizes in the raffle include a semiautomatic pistol and an AR-15-style rifle similar to the one used by a gunman who took 17 lives at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
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“I was truly astonished that a group of people purportedly supporting young girls under the age of 10 would be willing to raffle guns, rifles, automatic weapons as a way to raise money for their crew. That’s just repulsive,” Joell Finney, a retired teacher, told WTVG.
Kenny Barnett, owner of Fully Loaded Inc., an outdoor and sporting goods store in Lawrenceburg that’s providing the guns for the raffle, claims that, while he has received many calls from people angered by the raffle, he has also received calls of support.
“I’ve had calls both ways,” Barnett told CNN. “For every one against, I’ve probably had 10 more asking where can they buy tickets?”
The raffle, which only costs $10 for a ticket, is an attempt to raise funds for softball equipment, which can reach as high as $15,000 for the entire team. Barnett claims that a gun raffle can raise as much as $7,500.
Similar raffles have been held across the country, drawing scrutiny from those who believe that it is either too soon or that those types of prizes shouldn’t be included in raffles, especially those involving children.
Tyler Tannahill, a Republican pro-gun Congressional candidate in Kansas, announced that he’d be holding an AR-15 giveaway, which was launched, along with his candidacy, the day before the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Despite swift criticism, Tannahill defended the giveaway.
In California, 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 auction, which came just days after the mass shooting, caused multiple people to walk out of the fundraiser.
