UPDATE: The raffle has been canceled after this report by NorthJersey.com. Read the latest.

Plunk down $10 on a raffle ticket from the Bergenfield PBA, and you could wind up the proud owner of an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, or a Kel-Tec 12-gauge shotgun.

Those weapons — along with a Samsung 55-inch TV — are prizes in a raffle sponsored by the police union that runs through March 7.

Sound unusual for a police union to raffle off such a powerful weapon? It's not particularly, police say, though such raffles are more common in rural areas of the country.

Detective Dave Totora, president of the Bergenfield union, said it is the first time PBA Local 309 has done a raffle with guns as prizes, and money raised will go toward funding a scholarship and supporting local organizations.

“Hey, it’s popular because people want them,” Totora said of the AR-15. “Some people have not used them for the right reasons in the past, and there’s some issues with it, but that’s what people want.”

But it doesn't sit right with Eytan Stern Weber, spokesman for the New Jersey chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who said it was the first time he was aware of a raffle like this in New Jersey. He found it "unsettling" that such powerful guns are being auctioned off and could end up in the hands of people not as well-trained as police officers or members of the military.

"It is just a little difficult to see two extremely powerful pieces of weaponry on either side of a TV, as if they are in fact similar items," Weber said. "We understand … the PBA does good work and needs proper funding, but we believe that they are the ones that should have that [gun] power. Besides the military, that's not something that anyone else should have access to."

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AR-15 variations have been used in many of the deadliest shootings, including Newtown, Conn., Las Vegas and the Valentine's Day 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The firearm, the civilian counterpart to the M-16 used in warfare, is also popular among collectors and people interested in self-defense.

The raffle is open to the public, and winners will be announced during the New Jersey State PBA's 2019 Mini-Convention in Atlantic City on March 7.

But Totora said winners will not be given the guns at the convention: “We’re not just handing you a gun. We don’t just pull up with a van and give it to you.”

“If I picked your name, I have your info and I will call over to the gun store and say you're coming in, and you would bring in a firearms ID and have to pass a background check before you get the gun," Totora said.

Totora said the PBA had thought about offering other prizes besides guns, but said they knew of other raffles that had included guns as prizes and had done well. He also said the guns had drawn a lot of interest, though he did not know how much had been raised from ticket sales.

In New Jersey, a lifetime purchaser ID card is required to buy rifles and shotguns. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, also known as NICS, is conducted by the FBI to identify people not allowed under federal law to purchase firearms from a licensed dealer.

Totora said, “If you don’t qualify, you won’t be able to get it from the store.” He said the guns were purchased in advance by the PBA and kept at an unnamed store to be picked up by the raffle winners.

The M&P Sport AR-15, the model being raffled, is manufactured by Smith & Wesson and advertised on its website as “engineered for a wide variety of recreational, sport shooting and professional applications.” It has a 30-round magazine, and sells for $739. The Kel-Tec KSG is touted on the maker's website as “no ordinary tactical shotgun and has dual tube magazines that hold a dozen 3-inch, 12-gauge shells” and costs $990.

New Jersey's anti-assault weapons law specifically bans the original Colt AR-15 model, but not most of the AR-15 lookalike models produced by other firms.

Weber said he hopes the Bergenfield PBA would consider removing the guns from the raffle.

Tortora, though, said he hoped people will see the raffle as something positive to raise money for a good cause.

"We're trying it out. If it works, good," Tortora said. "Our whole thing was let's do a regular gun and a shotgun, and see how it goes."

The Kent Volunteer Fire Department in Putnam County, New York, was planning to raffle off an AR-15 rifle and a .30-gauge shotgun for its fundraising drive last year, but it ran into public pressure to cancel the raffle after the Parkland shooting, and decided to raffle off gift certificates to be used at local gun shop.