{"id":88411,"date":"2018-02-19T15:05:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T20:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=88411"},"modified":"2018-02-19T15:05:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T17:13:27","slug":"social-media-baseball-ar-15-raffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/social-media-baseball-ar-15-raffle\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Warriors Slam Youth Baseball Team for AR-15 Raffle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Social<\/a>

The Black Rain Gun Raffle causing a stir on social media. (Photo: The Kansas City Star<\/em>)\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

Social media users have found their obligatory AR-15 raffle to assault following a national tragedy.<\/p>\n

This round\u2019s target is a 9-and-under baseball team in Neosho, Missouri. The coach, Levi Patterson, and his boys are selling $5 tickets for a chance to win a Black Rain Ordinance Spec 15.<\/p>\n

The raffle was planned prior to the massacre in Florida. But that hasn\u2019t stopped Facebook users from attacking Patterson\u2019s plan to raise funds.<\/p>\n

One person named Dan Weaver wrote, \u201cAre you all tone deaf? AR-15 kills seventeen so you raffle a gun for child sports? Lord, people wake the hell up. Justify all you want but you are wrong, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patterson responded by writing that \u201cgun raffles have been going on for years. Evil has and will always exist. Our hearts break for those involved, and we do not take that lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others called the firearm a \u201ckilling machine.\u201d And claimed the players were being forced to sell the tickets.<\/p>\n

Patterson denied that his players were being forced to do anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate your \u2018concern\u2019 but please understand, we are not, have not, and will not force one of our boys to sell raffle tickets for the Black Rain AR15 Spec 15, if they are uncomfortable doing so,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

Patterson also told the Kansas City Star<\/a> that the harsh criticism may have backfired on the social media warriors hoping to end the raffle. The increased attention seems to have spurred increased participation. People as far away as Colorado have voiced interest in purchasing tickets, and donations are \u201cpouring in.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:\u00a0Anti-Gun Priest Spends 3K on AR-15, Turns It Into a Pickaxe<\/a><\/h2>\n

One of Patterson\u2019s critics went beyond leaving a message and reported his original post to Facebook, which soon deleted the image.<\/p>\n

\u201cI applaud them for standing up for what they believe in,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cI just think they have feelings to this specific type of gun (that are) different than people around here do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patterson considered changing the raffle item after the tragedy in Florida but decided to \u201cturn it into a positive thing\u201d after \u201cgetting the hate,\u201d according to the Star.<\/p>\n

As with all non-private firearm transfers, the winner of the raffle will be required to pass an FBI background check.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the only AR-15 giveaway receiving criticism in recent days. Tyler Tannahill, a Marine vet and Kansas congressional candidate, experienced a similarly harsh backlash<\/a> after announcing an AR-15 contest to raise support for his campaign.<\/p>\n

Tannahill told The Star that he will continue with his giveaway despite recent events.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo individual is for school shootings. It\u2019s heartbreaking … being a parent, our thoughts on that, for me personally, I am a strong believer in the Second Amendment,\u201d Tannahill said in an interview. \u201cI think we need to have a discussion of what can be done and throwing out comments of displeasure isn\u2019t going to solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The raffle was planned prior to the massacre in Florida, but that hasn\u2019t stopped Facebook users from attacking Patterson\u2019s plan to raise funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":88412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,25,593],"tags":[132,607,122],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-current-events","9":"category-jordan-michaels","10":"tag-buzz","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-r2kba"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/raffle-150x100.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183658,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88411\/revisions\/183658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88411"},{"taxonomy":"featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured?post=88411"},{"taxonomy":"hunt365","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hunt365?post=88411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}