Handgun offered as prize in GOP raffle: Liberals have a Cow

News/Current Events News Keywords: HANDGUNS
Source: Boston Globe
Published: 11/21/99 Author: Andy Carpenter
Posted on 11/21/1999 05:58:27 PST by rface
Group in Maryland county raises eyebrows with fund-raising tactic….

WESTMINSTER, Md. – Hoping to strike a blow for the Second Amendment, and to
replenish their coffers in the process, Republicans in Carroll County, Md.,
just northwest of Baltimore, have come up with a novel fund-raiser.

Behind closed doors on Thursday, members of the county’s Republican Central
Committee reaffirmed a plan to raffle off a handgun. Each $5 raffle ticket
offers the chance at winning a new $550 Beretta model 92FS 9mm handgun, a
course in how to use the weapon responsibly, and the book ”More Guns, Less
Crime,” by John Lott.

The committee chairman, Robert Wolfing, said the raffle is more than a
fund-raising gimmick.

”Much of this was precipitated when Joe Curran said he’s all for making
handguns illegal in Maryland,” Wolfing said Thursday of J. Joseph Curran,
the Maryland attorney general, after a fractious meeting over the issue.
”Without a doubt, this raffle is a political statement in which we also saw
the opportunity to make money.”

How much money?

”We started with a plan to print 500 tickets, and we already have at least
600 requests,” Wolfing said. ”Now we’re getting calls from Texas and
Missouri, so I’d say we’ll end up printing as many tickets as we need.”

The raffle has gained such momentum that committee members say no firm date
has been set for the drawing, which is loosely set for early next year.

Frank Mann, a spokesman for Curran, said Maryland’s four-term attorney
general would not comment on his supposed role as the motivation behind the
raffle.

Mann said Curran is not seeking a ban on handgun sales, but making a call
for a statewide dialogue on the need for handguns in situations other than
law enforcement and legitimate sporting endeavors.

”However, the attorney general agrees with the state’s Republican
leadership that the raffle is wrongheaded and sends a wrong message,” Mann
said.

Among the raffle’s other critics is the Central Committee’s deputy
chairwoman, Betty Smith, who, because of a family commitment, missed the
October meeting that approved the 9mm contest. She mounted an unsuccessful
attempt Thursday to scuttle the raffle.

”Raffling a handgun that could potentially be used as a concealed weapon is
an insensitive, irresponsible and unconscionable way of raising money,
especially by a group which is supposed to be upholding the doctrine of
family values,” she said after Thursday’s 7-1 committee vote went against
her. ”This raffle represents the political desires of the ultraconservative
wing of our party.”

The raffle is drawing vocal fire statewide, including from noncommittee
members here in suburbia, where most of the working populace sets out for
either a 40-minute commute to Baltimore or an hour’s drive to Washington,
D.C.

Jack Gullo is the mayor of New Windsor, a one-intersection town in
south-central Carroll County. Seven years ago, at age 24, Gullo was the
youngest mayor in the country. He was a Republican, a newly minted lawyer,
and legal counsel to the Carroll County Republican Central Committee.

Five weeks ago, Gullo became a Democrat.

”There were a number of factors behind my decision, but chief among my
concerns was the extremist nature of those who control the Carroll County
Republican Party,” said Gullo, who is a gun collector and a member of the
National Rifle Association.

”It is absurd for a state-sanctioned body, such as a Central Committee, to
raise money on a gun when gun violence is so preeminent in our public
consciousness,” Gullo said. ”It’s tasteless, like telling a dirty joke in
church, and it smacks of the kind of irresponsible gun ownership that causes
government to seek control.”

Gullo also worries, ”People are going to think that Carroll Countians are
the kind of people who bury guns in our backyards. They are going to think
we lack good judgment.”

Paul Ellington, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party,
admitted Thursday that the raffle is a public relations problem, but stood
by the local Central Committee’s right to self-governance.

”We are a diverse party, and this raffle is indicative of one county’s
perspective on firearms,” Ellington said. ”But, while there is plenty of
room for Second Amendment enthusiasts in our party, we would rather seek to
define ourselves on greater issues.”

Roscoe G. Bartlett, the Republican who has represented Carroll and
neighboring Frederick counties in Congress for four terms, insists the
raffle controversy reflects the gulf between urban and suburban/rural
lifestyles.

”Congressman Bartlett believes that guns are a topic that have very
different cultural responses based upon what part of the country you are
from,” Bartlett’s press secretary, Lisa Lyons Wright, said Thursday, while
confirming his interest in the handgun raffle.

”In rural regions guns are not politically incorrect, while the opposite is
true in urban areas. Carroll County is attached to rural Western Maryland,
and guns are not politically incorrect there.”

Wolfing, the Central Committee chairman, agreed with that assessment, but
reduced the sentiment to a simpler, more local viewpoint.

”We live 30 miles from Baltimore and there are murders there everyday and
hundreds of them a year,” Wolfing said. ”Yet handgun violence is virtually
unknown out here, and we are a very well-armed county.”

This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 11/21/99.