Thursday - June 3, 2022: A charter high school in Madison Florida raffled off firearms during a month-long fundraising campaign.
“The ‘2022 Outdoor May Madness" fundraiser at the James Madison Preparatory High School began May 2 and ended June 1. The raffle offered handguns and a semi-automatic shotgun, as well as some fishing and hunting gear.
The poster advertising the event displays 2 handguns and a Browning A5 Sweet 16, which is billed as the grand prize. The Browning A5 is a 16 gauge semi-automatic shotgun. "30 chances at 30 prizes in 30 days", states the poster. Raffle tickets went for $100 each.
The fundraiser was conducted, uninterrupted, by a series of mass shootings across the nation during the month of May.
The Board President of Prevent Gun Violence Florida and the Executive Director of The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus released a joint statement condemning the raffle.
“The ‘2022 Outdoor May Madness’ fundraiser at the James Madison Preparatory High School was aptly named, as it was indeed madness", said Patti Brigham, Board President of Prevent Gun Violence Florida. "The fact that a high school would hawk firearms, with one of the rafflers claiming, 'Every country boy needs this [a revolver] under the front seat of his truck ... I hope that’s legal,' was not only irresponsible, but reckless."
Brigham went on to say that Madison High School's principal, Mark Akerman, "claims to take school safety seriously, but we fail to see how raffling off guns is compatible with that claim," adding that the event was "out of touch with the reality of rising gun violence, especially among young people.”
“Given that a mass school shooting had just occurred in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 young students and 2 teachers were murdered, why on earth would officials at this charter school raffle off firearms?," said Andy Pelosi, Executive Director of The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus. "Raffling off firearms sends a message that school officials are perfectly content to glorify these weapons without considering the optics and real world consequences.”