Republican gun raffle in Giffords' county draws criticism

By Brad Poole

TUCSON, Ariz (Reuters) - The Republican Party in Representative Gabrielle Giffords' home county is raising eyebrows by raffling off a Glock handgun -- the same brand handgun with which Giffords, a Democrat, was shot through the head in January.

"When I first heard about this last week in an email, I said 'That's a joke, a sick joke. Nobody could be doing that,'" said Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers.

"This is like tearing the scab off a wound. This community is still healing."

The county Republican organization announced the fund-raiser in its online newsletter, Tracks, on August 26.

"Get yourself a new Glock 23 .40 cal handgun for just 10 bucks -- if your name is drawn," the newsletter reads.

A picture of the handgun, being raffled with three 12-round magazines and a case, also appears in the newsletter. The Republicans are selling 125 tickets.

Mike Shaw, chairman pro tem of the Pima County Republicans, and Frank Antenori, a Republican state senator who has filed paperwork for a potential run against Giffords, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia, is charged with shooting Giffords and 18 others with a Glock 19 handgun during a shopping center meet-and-greet January 8.

Six people died in the rampage before bystanders tackled Loughner, preventing him from reloading.

Giffords supports the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, said her spokesman Mark Kimble, though he could not confirm media reports that the congresswoman has owned a Glock handgun.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

Comments

[Mark Fowler 1911]

10:57 AM on 09/11/2011

I see no problem in it. I do see how others could,and I respect their opinion. I will also say it is a different gun than was used. Glock was probably picked because if they picked a cz p07 only a few would pay. Glock is one of if not the most known gun.

[ghorialtaf]

03:19 PM on 09/07/2011

best article here about Republican Gun Raffle,but more detail you can satisfy here.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/tucson-republican-leader-slams-county-gop-for-giffords-gun-raffle.php

[DMeadows]

10:33 AM on 09/06/2011

"Republican gun raffle in Giffords' county draws criticism"

Heck, yeah, there's much to criticize! A Glock 23?! Glock 17 would be MUCH better!

[mrmp5]

11:37 PM on 09/05/2011

Oh my God, it's not even the same model gun. A 23 is a .40 cal and a 19 is a 9mm. If it was dems holding the raffle it wouldnt even be in the news. There has been countless democratic supporters in the past that have shot republican supporters with basically no mention or care in the world... ie; most criminals are demos.

[Jay from Ottawa]

05:11 PM on 09/06/2011

correction: most criminals don't vote.

[G NBanner]

11:16 AM on 09/04/2011

Trying to Raffle the exact same Semi Automatic Machine Glock of Mass Destruction that caused such mayhem is the lowest of low. The NRA should be ashamed of themselves!

http://tinyurl.com/4k346he

[hagagaga]

01:50 AM on 09/04/2011

Never let facts get in the way of a good manufactured controversy.

[OdinsEye]

04:05 PM on 09/03/2011

Wow HuffPo, you must be desparate to get some milage out of this non-story. You have three articles and four links to the same subject.

The firearm is a different caliber, different model number, uses smaller magazines, and was left over from a similar fund raiser held last year BEFORE the Giffords shooting.

BTW, the story is that the attention generated in large part by HuffPo has caused such a high demend for tickets that another firearm has been added to the raffle.

[mathme]

03:17 PM on 09/03/2011

It's funny to me how many of the posts containing "What's the big deal" or "I wish I could buy one" sentiments have really basic spelling and grammar errors.

[OdinsEye]

04:17 PM on 09/03/2011

People who attack the spelling and grammar of others generally are unable to counter the actual points being made by the others. It is also a tactic which eventually bites them back, as everyone makes such errors --the attacker becomes hoist with their own petard.

[mathme]

05:13 PM on 09/03/2011

How is that an attack? I think it's also been pointed out, in detail, why this is a tasteless, slimy, act. To act like it's unrelated to the shooting requires an extraordinary level of obtuseness.

[ElmCreekSmith]

01:49 AM on 09/04/2011

It is funny since many more of the posts whining about the raffle have more egregious errors.

ECS

[Fred Beggs]

11:16 AM on 09/03/2011

This is proof that the pen is mightier than the sword. With a few comments, as if it were news, without giving all the details it can cause the reaction the writer is looking for. Replace the word "sword" with "gun".

[Nowhear this]

09:50 PM on 09/02/2011

This is nothing more than a political stunt with bad timeing. There have been many raffles like this in Arizona long before the shootings took place. Of course the libby media gets a hold of the story and inflates it to the size of the Hindenburg.

[mathme]

03:10 PM on 09/03/2011

Of course. How could this be twisted into being anything untoward? It takes some real mental gymnastics to find a problem with raffling off the same sort of gun used to shoot your opposition's elected representative.

[hagagaga]

01:42 AM on 09/04/2011

Well, it isn't the "same sort."

[stimpy58]

05:07 PM on 09/02/2011

Pima County Republican Party Chairperson....Don't pay attention to the morons making critical remarks about a gun raffle. If the gutless wonder were carrying a weapon they COULD HAVE downed the shooter in a flash. Oh, can I get ten tickets.

[FilthyHarry]

09:06 PM on 09/02/2011

FYI the guy there with a gun didn't get a chance to draw, the guy with no gun was the hero.

[OdinsEye]

05:16 PM on 09/03/2011

He wasn't at the scene, he was in another store in the same strip mall/plaza and had to drop his intended purchases run out of the store and across a parking lot to get to the scene, by which time the gunman had already been tackled.

[hagagaga]

01:48 AM on 09/04/2011

The nearest person with a weapon was indoors and out of the effective range of most handguns.

[mathme]

03:11 PM on 09/03/2011

There were guns there. They didn't help anyone. The only guns that fired that day killed and injured innocent people. Hypothesis tested; H1 rejected.

[Grumpy Man]

03:49 PM on 09/03/2011

"There were guns there."

Help me out. I'm aware of Joe Zamudio, the young man who arrived at the scene AFTER the shooting, but I haven't read anything about other armed persons being present DURING the shooting. Do you have a reference or are you just shooting off your mouth?

[OdinsEye]

05:42 PM on 09/03/2011

The nearest other firearm was some distance away, inside a different store, not at the scene at the time of the shooting.

[ernestkp]

04:51 PM on 09/02/2011

Does it come with a smiling Loughner t-shirt?

[From my cold dead hands]

01:35 AM on 09/04/2011

You will have to go to the Democratic website to get that.

[gaterview]

04:42 PM on 09/02/2011

I wouldd like to thank Huff Post and Pima Co Dem Chair for making this raffle such a great success. Why we stopped at 125 tickets Ill never know. With the help from you all we could have sold a bunch more. You Libs are so smart

[ChezMJ]

07:07 PM on 09/02/2011

Yes, we Libs ARE smart. And you CONS are dumb. And vulgar, insensitive, repulsive, reprehensible, disgusting, distasteful, repugnant, heinous, rude, pathetic, callous, heartless, crass, unfeeling, tactless, unkind, cruel, savage and that's just off the top of my head. You are so foolish as to think you've somehow "won." There are good & decent people even in AZ that will find this stunt of the GOP so inhuman that they will rethink voting for a party that revels in the pain of their fellow Americans.

[Thaddeus Carpenter]

07:56 AM on 09/03/2011

Yeah.. A people who have to tell others they are smart so other people can realize it are not....

[Grumpy Man]

08:33 AM on 09/04/2011

"There are good & decent people even in AZ that will find this stunt of the GOP so inhuman that they will rethink voting for a party that revels in the pain of their fellow Americans."

Please display evidence that anyone has said anything to indicate the GOP has promoted reveling "in the pain of their fellow Americans." As has already been pointed out innumerable times on this thread, the raffle started last year, Giffords is a 2A supporter and Giffords owns a Glock. Any person who could open their mind even a little bit might have to admit that this could just as easily be seen as a promotion of self defense against people like Loughner... a concept that escapes too many people.

I'm an independent who is very liberal on many issues and quite conservative on other issues. I sit on the sidelines and watch (D)'s & (R)'s throw insults at each other, adopt various levels of self-righteous indignation and basically promote an atmosphere of non-cooperation. We all lose. Neither side is always right or always wrong. Anyone who thinks so is, in my opinion, very intellectually limited.

[tucsonterry725]

04:21 PM on 09/02/2011

Gabe Zimmerman, aide to Congresswoman Giffords and one of the six people killed that day was the son of a friend of mine. I find it extremely distasteful what the Pima County Republican party is doing. They should be ashamed of themselves. Please consider the feelings of the survivors and the families of those who lost loved ones, especially that of Christina Taylor-Green. Stop the raffle!

[ItMustSook]

05:12 PM on 09/02/2011

I think it’s shameful that the Huffington Post is making political hay over your loss with this non-issue.

[Iconcoclast]

05:35 PM on 09/02/2011

The raffle has nothing to do with the death of your friend's son. Nor should his death be exploited for cheap political advantage, as this so-called controversy attempts to do.

[cmcclarty]

07:57 PM on 09/02/2011

Some forget pima county is a big county its not just tucson.

[AbbyAbby]

04:07 PM on 09/02/2011

I can't help but look at the facts laid out here and think it just doesn't add up. First of all, is it even legal to auction off a gun? What about background checks/convicted felons, etc?

Secondly, they are selling 125 tickets for $10 each, so would take in $1250. Subtract the cost of the gun (of which I have no estimate) and you end up with a lot of trouble for very little money.

This seems like the type of thing someone opposed to gun rights would pull, not an organization that supports 2nd amendment rights, so it seems misplaced. I would have to wonder if this is just a completely made up story or if someone hacked into their website and posted this and then alerted the media. I just can't see a way that this raffle would benefit the group purporting to be holding it.

[alex4anw]

04:13 PM on 09/02/2011

Yeah, there are some stupid gun promotions. I recall one from "Bowling for Columbine" where a BANK was giving away guns to people opening new accounts. One assumes they were not loaded, so the account holder would have to bring his own ammunition before saying, "Thanks! This is a stick up!"

I'm all for 2nd amendment rights, as well as for first, fifth, and fourteenth amendment rights, too, but most people yelling about "Second Amendment" have no idea what else is in the Constitution.

[AbbyAbby]

07:23 PM on 09/02/2011

Is this actually real?

[OdinsEye]

04:10 PM on 09/03/2011

"What about background checks/con­victed felons, "

The winner will have to be at least 21 years old, fill out the BATFE form 4473 and pass a NICS check.