For Just $5 You Can Enter a Raffle Benefitting Orlando Victims’ Families – Prize Is an AR-15

Gun Store Owner Says They Want to Support Families ‘In Our Own Way’

Owners of an Illinois gun store say they want to support the families of the victims of the terror attack on an Orlando gay nightclub, so they are raffling off an AR-15, the same type of semi-automatic weapon used by the terrorist to massacre 49 people and injure 53 others.

Second Amendment Sports in McHenry, about 60 miles northwest of Chicago, is also using the raffle to draw attention to its new store and gun range. 

“We’re looking to support the victims, the families and the survivors of this act,” Bert Irslinger, Jr., told WGN. “How we do that, is in our own way.”

“For our industry, this isn’t weird,” Irslinger added. “It’s a normal product. It’s bought every day buy Americans across the United States.” Many would disagree with calling a killing machine “a normal product.”

The store will donate $2000 plus the proceeds of the raffle to the OneOrlando Fund. The drawing is July 31. 

“I understand that there are different opinions out there,” Vic Santi, the store’s marketing director, told the Chicago Tribune. “We don’t look at this as a gun issue. We look at this as a terrorism issue.”

But some, understandably, are not pleased.

The Tribune reports Kathleen Larimer, whose son, 27-year-old U.S. Navy sailor John Larimer lost his life in the Aurora mass shooting, “said she considers the raffle an inappropriate publicity ploy.”

“Guns are not toys,” Larimer said. “They should be taken seriously. I’m not saying they should be illegal, but raffling off a gun is not taking its killing power seriously.”

Colleen Daley, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence in Chicago, also called the raffle offensive.

“I’m glad people are trying to raise money,” she said. “I just don’t think it’s the most appropriate way to do that. These guns are weapons of war, meant to kill large numbers of people in a short time, which is what happened in Orlando. I find it very distasteful and offensive.”

There is no mention of the raffle on the store’s website, Facebook page, or Twitter page. A call to the store’s marketing director was not returned before publication.

No word on if OneOrlando will refuse the funds.

 

Image: Screenshot via WGN