It also means that someone who has a past felony conviction and is therefore unable to purchase a gun in Texas can still win and can use the gift card for something else. They go and spend it on something else - camping gear, shoes and whatnot." He says that, according to the local sporting goods store his organization teams with for the raffles, "few of our winners ever go in and buy the gun. Instead, they could use the same certificate to purchase other items at the same store. they could go through all the background checks and legally purchase the pistol," Smith says. "So, if it's a pistol worth $250 and they get a gift card for $250. The raffles are designed to meet the letter of the law and keep organizers at arm's length from a sale that can present complications. "No used car dealer in New York City is going to give away a gun with a purchase of a car, you know, but if you're in Manhattan, Kansas, instead of Manhattan, New York, that might be a perfectly normal part of people's lives," he adds. inner city violence or random mass shootings, whereas other people live in situations where guns are a very perfectly normal part of their everyday life," Yamane says. "You know that some people live in a world in which they only think of guns in connection with. "We really live in some distinctly different worlds with respect to guns," Yamane says. raising money for police and fire departments, local civic organizations and even politicians, says David Yamane, a professor of sociology who studies gun culture at Wake Forest University. Gun raffles have proliferated in recent years, mostly in the rural U.S. is divided into "distinctly different worlds" The NRA did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the raffle. The contest is being billed as a giveaway of "12 world-class guns that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi want to ban!" The National Rifle Association, which went ahead with a Houston gathering just days after the Uvalde school shooting, has continued to promote its ongoing "Banned Guns Giveaway" raffle, which ends in September, despite the recent shootings. "I understand why some people find it wrong," he says. Lane says that despite the decision to call the raffle off, the community reaction to it in the days after the Uvalde shootings was running about 70-30 in favor of holding it anyway. "He's done cigars he's done lawn furniture. He says that in the past, a sergeant with the K9 unit has raffled other things besides guns. The proceeds were to go to the widow of Lane's predecessor, who died in 2020. Later that day came a follow-up post noting "the hate mail that's flowing in right now because of a overly sensitive society."Īs in Rocky Run, Aliquippa Police Chief John Lane concedes it was "bad timing" for the fundraiser. Everyone will be refunded for their purchases," a post on the Aliquippa Police K9 Facebook page announced last Thursday, two days after the shooting at the primary school in Uvalde that killed 19 children and two teachers. "Due to some bad publicity, and negative feedback from other citizens I am going to seize the current sportsman package raffle. In the Pittsburgh suburb of Aliquippa, a similar sold-out gun giveaway featuring a Glock 9 mm pistol and 250 rounds of ammunition was canceled by the local K9 police unit. "We maintain raffles are literally the safest way to acquire a firearm," he says, because winners have to have identification, submit to a background check and all guns are acquired through a licensed firearms dealer. Still, he defends the practice of gun giveaways because, he says, if structured properly, they adhere scrupulously to state and federal guidelines. "The conversation belongs in looking forward to how do we prevent these things from happening," Barr says, such as focusing on physical security and mental health. He says going ahead with the raffle would have proven a distraction, given recent events.
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