Leslie ‘Gun Giveaway’ raffle raises cash for youth wrestling membership
LESLIE – Chad Risner was seeking to elevate cash for his youth wrestling membership, sufficient so that oldsters would not must pay for their little one to take part.
He settled on a “Gun Giveaway,” with the prizes being 28 firearms and two different prizes, one to be raffled off on every day in September.
“That is only a method to get forward and make the dad and mom completely happy,” stated Risner, head coach of the Leslie Youth Wrestling Membership, which isn’t affiliated with the Leslie Faculty District. “Instances are powerful proper now. We’re attempting to make it so they do not must pay for something all yr.”
The thought seems to have labored. The membership offered all 1,000 of its raffle tickets in simply six days, $20,000 value, and Risner was nonetheless getting calls this week from individuals who needed to purchase in.
Though reactions on social media had been combined, some folks blasted the gun giveaway as insensitive or inappropriate throughout a time when mass shootings have turn into commonplace and proscribing entry to firearms is a fiercely contested political difficulty.
“That is so unusual,” Alissa Beaty Giler posted to the wrestling membership’s Fb web page. “I used to be JUST considering we actually do not contain weapons in youngsters extracurricular actions sufficient.”
“In my unsolicited opinion I am with the residents who assume its a minimum of SUPER insensitive & yeah.. that is inappropriate for school-aged youngsters, organizations and college districts,” Derek Ward stated in a message posted to the State Journal’s Fb web page.
Risner stated he took the criticism in stride, including, “You possibly can give flowers away, and folks would complain about it.”
However he acknowledged he did not count on all the adverse response he noticed.
Risner famous that nothing is technically being given away. Tickets are $20 every, minors aren’t eligible to take part within the raffle, and anybody who wins a gun must adjust to all firearms laws with a view to declare it, together with the usual federal background test, he added.
“Now we have nothing to do with the varsity,” he stated. “I do not assume these folks perceive there are background checks. There are not any weapons being seen by youngsters, nothing like that. Not that that will be unlawful, however the youngsters do not even know what happening.”
The raffle is sponsored by the wrestling membership and American Legion Submit 491 in Leslie. Winners can be decided by the Michigan Lottery’s night 3-digit drawing. The prizes embody a mixture of shotguns, rifles and handguns, with one $400 gun voucher and a $300 ammunition voucher.
Risner stated winners can have the choice to get clothes or different merchandise primarily based on the worth of the gun. All prizes should be claimed at Litchfield Open air in Litchfield.
That is the primary time the wrestling membership has tried a gun raffle, Risner stated. He is seen the thought being utilized in different areas, together with Calhoun and Hillsdale counties, and tickets appear to promote out briefly order, he stated.
The Leslie neighborhood has been supportive, he stated.
“We have offered to highschool lecturers, we have offered to folks you actually wouldn’t assume can be shopping for,” he stated.
The wrestling membership final yr had about 50 contributors starting from eighth-graders on down, Risner stated. Price is a matter for a lot of households, and the raffle is a method to cowl membership charges, he stated.
“We caught a child final yr sneaking rooster residence in a bag as a result of he did not have quite a bit to eat,” he stated. “We certain need to make it comfy for him whereas he is right here.”
The gun giveaway most likely will not be the final for the wrestling membership, Risner stated.
“We would discuss with the Legion; we’d have one other one,” he stated. “There are many individuals who nonetheless need tickets. I simply had a name from a man who needed to purchase six extra tickets.”
Contact Ken Palmer atkpalmer@lsj.com. Observe him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.
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