BERGENFIELD — A PBA-sponsored raffle that listed a semi-automatic rifle and a shotgun as prizes has been canceled after intervention by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, borough police officials said Friday.

A state statute that bars giving away weapons as prizes appears to have brought the event to an early end.

"The raffle for vouchers to the weapons has been canceled," Capt. Mustafa Rabboh, of the Bergenfield Police Department, wrote in an email. "Anyone who purchased a ticket will have their money refunded."

Detective Dave Tortora, president of Bergenfield PBA Local 309, said Thursday the firearms raffle was just another way to help his 46-member organization raise money. Most of the people who bought the $10 tickets were cops themselves, and they tend to be interested in guns, he said.

“We’re a small local, so raising money can be tough,” Tortora said. “I would raffle off pet rocks if people would buy tickets for it.”

The Prosecutor's Office became involved after a NorthJersey.com reporter was seeking comment about the legality of the raffle. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor thanked the reporter for bringing the raffle to their attention, but she declined to comment further.

But Tortora was apologetic in a prepared statement released after the cancellation.

"After consultation with Police Administration, we believe it to be in the best interest of the public, Bergenfield Police Dept., and members of PBA local 309, to withdraw the raffles for the weapons," Tortora said. " We understand the gravity of these weapons and the means to which they’ve been used. We sincerely apologize to anyone we may have offended as a result of this raffle."

Versions of the AR-15 were used in some of the nation’s bloodiest mass murders, from an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 first graders and six adult educators were gunned down in December 2012, to the killing of 49 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017, the nation's deadliest mass shooting. And on Feb. 14, 2018, a disgruntled 19-year-old former student allegedly used an AR-15 to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The rifle, which is a semi-automatic version of the military's M-16, has been described by the National Rifle Association as "American's most popular rifle."

Before the prosecutor's office became involved, Tortola brushed aside the history of the rifle.

“Hey, it’s popular because people want them,” Totora said. “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.”

Totora did not respond to requests for comment after he issued his statement Friday evening.

The PBA was offering the two guns as a prize — including the M&P15 Sport rifle, which is Smith & Wesson's version of the AR-15 assault rifle — along with a 55-inch Samsung TV. The money would have helped replenish the Lt. Del Chamberlain Memorial Scholarship fund, which awards $1,500 annually to a Bergenfield High School senior to help pay for their continuing education.

But the inclusion of the AR-15 variant raised eyebrows among the gun control crowd. The AR-15 is popular among gun collectors and sport shooters because it's lightweight, customizable and easy to shoot.

Other organizations across the country have run into blowback over similar raffles.

The Kent Volunteer Fire Department in Putnam County, New York, was planning to raffle off an AR-15 last year, but instead gave out gun shop gift certificates after burgeoning public opposition. A police PBA in Rosendale, New York, canceled a similar raffle last February after the Parkland, Florida shootings.

"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," Eytan Stern Weber, spokesman for the New Jersey chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said this week. "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."

Tortora said Thursday that he believed the way in which Bergenfield structured the raffle made it legal. Police weren't going to give the gun to the winner on the day of the drawing, which was set for March 7 at the state PBA's mini-convention in Atlantic City.

Instead, the winner would have contacted Tortora the day they were ready to pick up the gun from a pre-selected store. They would have needed a valid firearms ID card and would have needed to pass a federal background check at the store.

“It’s pretty much a gift certificate for it,” Tortora said.

The guns might seem like a strange prize. But such raffles are relatively common in the country’s more rural parts.

The term “AR-15” refers to a gun, banned in New Jersey, that is specifically manufactured by Colt. But variations, like the M&P15 Sport, are legal provided manufacturers make small changes to its design to fit the state’s quirky gun laws. Tortora said the prize guns were legal in New Jersey.

The M&P15 has a 10-round magazine and sells online for about $740. The shotgun, a Kel-Tec KSG, retails for about $990.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

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