PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — If you want to own a Smith & Wesson M&P-15 equipped with a vortex strikefire red-dot site, get hold of the Multnomah County Republicans.
The Multnomah County GOP is raffling this rifle on December 4. Of course you have to buy a ticket, be at least 21 and pass a legal background check.
On their website, organizers said this rifle raffle will “help support the Multnomah County Republican Party Defenders of the Second Amendment.”
A call for comment from the Multnomah County Democrats has not been returned at this time.
This kind of raffle tends to generate both controversy and big raffle sales.
In August 2016, a Lake Oswego pastor won an AR-15 assault rifle after using $3000 in discretionary church funds to buy as many of the raffle tickets as he could for a softball league fundraiser to send high school students to a regional tournament in California.
Rev. Jeremy Lucas, 44, wanted to win so he could destroy the gun. He told the AP he received overwhelming support from parishioners. But the Oregon State Police investigated him because he gave the gun to a friend for safekeeping without performing a background check.
Eventually he wasn’t charged.
In 2015, a Portland jeweler tried to offer a Washougal American Legion Post a diamond worth $3500 if they would turn their AK-47 over to the Washington State Patrol. Todd Passerini learned the American Legion Cape Horn Post 122 was having a raffle for an AK-47.
Passerini said he called the legion four times and wasn’t able to reach anybody.
And in 2014, in what was at least their fourth raffle of its kind, the St. Helens Girls Softball Association awarded a .50 caliber rifle to one of about 1000 ticket buyers who each paid $50.
The Barrett M107A1 .50 caliber rifle was valued at nearly $11,000, and a $1900 rifle scope was donated.
