It's OK to sell an AR-15 to raise money, but not getting a raffle license is ILLEGAL!

[southerncrone]

Glad this sheriff could call them out on this, but how crazy is that. And we have another AR-15 on the streets.

Seriously, WHY would the Republican Party raffle off a semi-automatic assault rifle? Especially, when law enforcement is trying to get them off the street. Crap like this needs serious attention & discussion from police depts. What makes it even more egregious, is this is just a few miles down the road from the July 16 mass murder at the military recruitment & training facilities in Chattanooga, and only 6 weeks after that tragedy! How arrogant & thoughtless!

Love the Democratic Party Chair's response:
"It's kind of funny," he said. "The Republican Party, they push, they stand behind their gun rights. But when it comes to something like this, they don't particularly follow the law. The raffle? It would be good if everyone follows the same rules."

I know it's Georgia, but damn...
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/nov/07/sheriff-chattoogcounty-republicans-raffled-aw/334478/

[whatthehey]

1. The title is perfectly true in each clause. Don't get the need for exclamation but ok

Yes it is and yes it is in TN at least.


With a following group extremely fond of guns, raffling a gun will raise more money than raffling something of which they are not fond, like solar panels or lifetime subscriptions to Mother Jones and The Nation, so that's a perfectly understandable choice.

Poor planning and silly assumptions are probably the reason for the second part. I confess I had no clue a raffle license existed until reading the article, but generally speaking it's a good idea to call local LE before arranging to do anything that impacts people and money especially in public spaces unless you have a long history and deep expertise doing so. There are all kinds of strange laws governing such things.

[Marengo]

2. I would think the AR-15 would have only been transferred to the raffle winner...

through an FFL after a successful background check. I'm not sure why you assuming the rifle would end up "on the streets".

[EL34x4]

3. This would be the case

With pretty much every firearm raffle I've heard of. If you win, you still have to legally acquire the weapon.

I was more angry about the "raffle license" that's required but when I read it is to prevent gambling, I suppose that makes sense. It would be pretty easy to circumvent gambling laws if raffles were unregulated.

[hack89]

4. I disagree that law enforcement is trying to get them off the street

When there is widespread resistance by law enforcement in NY to enforce the SAFE Act it is hard to argue that law enforcement universally supports stricter gun control.

[Lee-Lee]

5. Outside of a few big urban centers like NYC and Chicago LE doesn't care about

You get your police chiefs who are politically appointed endorsing gun control when the folks who hire and fire them support it- but rank and file and most other departments don't care about law abiding citizens having AR-15's.

Hell, here is a department that did their own AR-15 raffle..


http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/AR-15-Rfile-Raffle-Chester-County-207520581.html

[Recursion]

6. I don't think law enforcement really cares about AR-15's very much

It's handguns that worry them

[Lizzie Poppet]

8. Precisely.

About 275 people were murdered with rifles last year. About the same for shotguns. Handguns? About 7500. Which makes perfect sense: the majority of homicides are committed by people with significant criminal records. Criminals who use firearms in their "career" almost exclusively choose handguns for their concealability.

As an aside, total homicides were down to about 12,000, following a decades=long trend. This year will likely see a spike, but hopefully that's an aberration.

[GGJohn]

7. Out on the street?

You have any proof of this?
You do realize that the raffle winner would have to submit to a background check done through an FFL dealer don't you?

BTW, an AR-15 is NOT an assault rifle, it's a semi auto rifle, it operates the same exact way as my .22 semi auto rifle, on round per trigger pull.