Tea Party Holds 'Great Gun Giveaway'

By Sabian Warren and Jon Ostendorff, Citizen Times

21 December 12

he Asheville Tea Party is taking heat over plans to raise money with the raffle of a semiautomatic rifle similar to one used in the Connecticut school shootings that killed 20 children.

An announcement about the raffle, which the group is calling The Great Gun Giveaway, was posted Monday on the group's website. Also posted Monday were several articles on why gun control and gun-free zones, including gun-free schools, don't work. Along with the articles were photographs of gun-toting Israeli schoolteachers on field trips.

Among the critics was Huffington Post blogger Leah Griesmann, a part-time Asheville resident who works as a writing instructor at San Jose State University. In a post Tuesday on the New York-based online news site, she wrote, "As the nation mourns the horrifying mass shooting of children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Asheville, North Carolina Tea Party has posted a new flyer advertising their upcoming fundraiser The Great Gun Giveaway.

"Without a word of sympathy for the victims, the group's website also offers as a solution to future mass shootings an article urging teachers to carry and gun-free zones to be banned."

Asheville Tea Party chairwoman Jane Bilello said the fundraiser was planned before Friday's massacre, which claimed the lives of 20 students and six staff members at the school. The gunman also killed his mother and himself.

"I can understand their initial reaction," Bilello, a retired teacher, said of critics' assertion the fundraiser and accompanying articles were insensitive. "We're taking flak, that's fine. If anything, this brings this issue to the surface. We are appalled at this (Connecticut) incident, but gun control has not worked."

She was unapologetic about her belief that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens, including school staff, would decrease gun violence in the U.S., including mass killings at schools.

Because of federal laws banning guns at schools, Bilello said, "Anybody on a campus is a sitting duck. Nobody there has any way to protect themselves."

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Griesmann said she was "shocked and horrified" when she saw the fundraiser announcement on the tea party's website. She said she checked the site because she remembered a previous fundraiser sponsored by the group called a Machine Gun Social, in which tickets were sold for a chance to fire an Uzi.

"The timing seems so clear," Griesmann said. "It was obviously in response to the shootings. Theirs is the only website I've seen without a word of sympathy."

Two guns will be raffled at the fundraiser, including an AR15 semiautomatic .223-caliber rifle similar to one used by Adam Lanza to kill his victims at Sandy Hook. The rifle includes two 30-round clips and a carrying case with a total value of $1,500. Tickets are $20 each, with a maximum of 200 tickets sold.

Also to be raffled is a .22 Magnum pistol with a 30-round clip with a value of $415. Tickets are $10 each with a cap at 200 tickets.

Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, noted that the National Rifle Association took down its Facebook page and Twitter account after the Sandy Hook tragedy.

"I think if you have the pre-eminent gun rights group in the country stepping back, at least temporarily, it's a bit surprising the local tea party chapter would do the opposite," he said.

The NRA, late Tuesday, said it was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions" to prevent similar tragedies.

Firearms instructor and training counselor Bob Plyler of Asheville said there is nothing wrong with raffling a gun. Hunt clubs and other groups do it all the time.

He also said there "is nothing inherently evil about a .223. There are millions of them out there."

The timing is the key here, he said of the tea party raffle.

"Now might not be the best time to do something like that," he said.