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— Selling raffle tickets to benefit an athletic team is not new, but having an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon as the prize is drawing heavy criticism in the wake of the shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 and injured dozens, The Kansas City Star reported.
Third-graders in the southern Missouri city of Neosho were selling the tickets to benefit their traveling baseball team. Levi Patterson, the coach of a 9-and-under team in Neosho, said the idea was conceived before the Feb. 14 shooting at Parkland High School in South Florida, the Star reported.
The father of one of the players offered the weapon for the raffle.
Patterson told the Star that he considered changing the prize after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, but decided to “turn it into a positive thing.”
The post, which has since been removed by Facebook, showed a weapon next to the mascot logo of South Elementary School in Neosho.
The raffle is not affiliated with the Neosho School District, and the winner must pass a background check before receiving the gun, the Star reported.