FAIR USE:

School’s Gun Raffle Ticket Sales Up

.c The Associated Press

By MELINDA DESLATTE

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Gun advocates are buying tickets by the hundreds to show
their support for a private school’s gun raffle, which drew criticism from
school safety advocates in the wake of the Columbine massacre.

Five hunting rifles and shotguns are being raffled Dec. 6-10 by Hobgood
Academy in Halifax County, which plans to use the money to buy new equipment
for the Future Farmers of America group of high school students.

In light of the April shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.,
where two students killed 13 others before committing suicide, as well as
other school shootings nationwide, the raffle drew media attention and
healthy criticism from school safety advocates.

Then buyers surfaced from all over the country, saying they wanted to
register their disapproval of antigun groups by purchasing the $10 tickets.
Many said they learned of the raffle from Internet newsgroups and newspaper
articles, said headmaster John Hardison.

“I’m sure we’re getting this interest because of the publicity,” he said.
“We’re not insensitive to gun violence; we’re a school, too. I don’t
understand what all the commotion is for. We weren’t looking for this
publicity.”

Hardison said the school, a kindergarten through 12th-grade campus that has
operated for 30 years, is still tabulating the number of tickets sold. The
number has reached into the hundreds, with more expected, far surpassing
anticipated sales.

Word of the raffle reached Fred Bonner a couple of weeks ago.

Bonner, a syndicated columnist and editor of Carolina Adventure, a Raleigh
hunting, fishing and boating publication, posted information about the raffle
to a few Internet gun advocate news groups and e-mailed it to hunting friends
across the country to generate interest.

“My phone at home has been coming off the wall for days (after the e-mails
were sent),” he said.

Bonner said he has no affiliation with Hobgood Academy, but wanted to support
the raffle because he thought it was a good fund-raiser.

Hardison said the controversy caught him off guard.

“In the fall in eastern North Carolina with the hunting and all, we thought
it was just a marketable idea to raise money for the FFA,” he said. “We
don’t allow guns in the school. Only adults can win the raffle and they have
to be approved.”

Adults on the FFA advisory board picked the prizes, and the school bought the
guns from a reputable dealer, Hardison said. Winners must undergo background
checks and meet other legal requirements, he said.

Lisa Price, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence,
said the school is the wrong venue for a gun raffle, but she will not try to
stop it.

“Given recent massacres in schools, I thought it would be really
inappropriate for a school to be holding a gun raffle,” she said. “I
realize this is a rural community, and there’s a lot of hunting, but it’s
still a school.

AP-NY-11-19-99 0411EST