Posted on 02/23/2004 4:09:39 PM PST by TERMINATTOR
HAMISH ROBERTSON: Well staying in the United States, Anti-gun campaigners are concerned about a worrying trend in which charity groups and fundraisers are using guns as prizes in raffles.
A volunteer fire brigade has set a new benchmark with its raffle, giving away a gun every day for the entire year.
It says it needs the cash to continue operating, but many are wondering whether America, a nation already saturated with guns, needs anymore.
Lisa Millar compiled this report.
(sound of cars passing by)
LISA MILLAR: A few hours drive west of Washington DC lies Emmitsburg, Maryland, which gets its share of tourists. A small country town, it's part of America's civil war history, Gettysburg is just a few kilometres away.
But it's attracting national attention now because of the way in which the local fire brigade is raising money.
It's holding a gun raffle, not just any gun raffle, but one that gives away a weapon for every day of the year.
One of the brigade's volunteers, Chris Stahley, admits some people were initially anxious.
CHRIS STAHLEY: You had your mixed feelings. I mean, you had people who were totally for it, they knew the good cause it was going for, they knew they were hunting guns, they're guns that everybody that's buying these calendars already have and then you also had the ones that wondered why a fire department would want to give guns away and make this a more dangerous place than it already is.
LISA MILLAR: The brigade sells a 2004 calendar for $30. Each day's prize is clearly marked.
CHRIS STAHLEY: That's another good hunting gun. Of course, as I said, they're all hunting guns that we give away. There's some normal, regular guns and then there's also some collectors items like the Dale Earnhardt 12-gauge shotgun, that's more than likely will not be used for hunting, if somebody wins it they’ll probably keep it as a collector's item because of the name.
LISA MILLAR: John Hollinger shows me one of the prizes, assembling it fresh from the box.
(sound of a rifle being assembled)
It's a Winchester rifle due to be given away in a few days.
He's volunteered for this brigade for 58 years and he can't understand the fuss about the raffle.
JOHN HOLLINGER: It's not really unusual I don't really think in this part of the country. There's a lot of organisations, sportsman's clubs and fire departments, they hold these types of raffles.
LISA MILLAR: Chris Stahley is adamant the guns are for hunting and nothing else.
CHRIS STAHLEY: They're not out to put weapons in bad people's hands, I mean everybody’s got to… they just can't just win a gun and get it, they need to go through a background check.
(sound of siren)
LISA MILLAR: This small town fire brigade says the raffle is the difference between being able to help people or not.
CHRIS STAHLEY: It's the only way we succeed. We have to do these fundraisers to get the equipment that you see here in this fire department. Without that we'd be a little bit of nothing.
LISA MILLAR: But anti-gun campaigner Leah Barrett says the popularity of gun raffles is frightening. Even more frightening, that they’re so common many Americans no longer raise an eyebrow.
LEAH BARRETT: I think that Americans are adequately armed. A UN survey on small arms released over the summer showed that Americans are the most heavily armed civilian population in the world. We have between 86 and 92 guns per 100 people, approaching one gun per person, and the next most heavily armed country is Yemen, they have 40 weapons per 100 hundred people.
So I think raffling guns in a culture that’s already totally saturated with guns, hand guns, assault weapons, rifles, is irresponsible, publicly irresponsible. It's a public health menace and does nothing to alleviate the horrible gun carnage that we have here every year.
LISA MILLAR: But the Emmitsburg Fire Brigade rejects any suggestion it's contributing to America's gun culture. It's going to make $60,000 from this raffle, and it's been such a success, they're already working on next year's calendar.
This is Lisa Millar in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for Correspondents Report.
Come and take them, b!tch.
If I win it I don't think it will fit in my Honda Del Sol. Well, maybe if I take the top off but it will be a close fit.
Then again, since I live in a condo association, I'm not allowed to have pets over a certain size.
I know, if I can get the thing up here, I can put a set of fake reindeer horns on its head and tell the city folk in the neighborhood that Santa left one of his reindeer here in the complex because it was sick and needed some TLC! Yea, that should work!!!
It's amazing. 1 million hunters in Penn's Woods and no "carnage".
Who'd a thunk it!
18-80 would be fine with me.
Thank you. ;-)
I am permitted to use my dad's .348 Winchester Model 71, but I'd like something with just a little more "Oomph" when bears are around. (My dad still swears by his Model 71 as The Original Bear Medicine, though.)
How come the kids get to have all the fun?
Semper Fi
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