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.
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.In light of the April shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., as well as other school shootings nationwide, the raffle drew 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.
"We're not insensitive to gun violence," he said, "we're a school, too."
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."