McHENRY – A McHenry gun shop announced plans Wednesday to raffle off an AR-15 rifle to raise money for the victims of the June 12 nightclub shooting in Orlando.

Meanwhile, a Crystal Lake woman whose son was killed in another mass shooting called the fundraiser “a slap in the face to anybody who’s lost somebody to gun violence.”

The owners of Second Amendment Sports said they will make a $2,000 donation to the OneOrlando Fund and sell $5 raffle tickets through the month of July to win the AR-15 rifle, which is similar to the rifle the gunman in Orlando used in his attack that killed 49.

Kathleen Larimer, whose 27-year-old son John Larimer died during the July 2012 attack on a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, called the raffle “cruel.” The gunman in the Aurora shooting carried an AR-15 among other weapons.

“The best analogy I can come up with is, you don’t raise money for victims from a drunk driving accident by raffling off a case of alcohol,” Larimer said. “It’s insensitive. It’s tacky at best.”

Bert Irslinger Jr., the co-owner of the store, said the store wanted to help victims of the attack and did not want the conversation to revolve around guns.

“It’s a heinous attack. It’s terrorist activity,” Irslinger said. “We thought we would take the focus off this being a gun issue, which it is not, and put it to the fact of what it is, which is a terrorist attack on Americans. We want to support Americans and the victims and their families in this event.”

Irslinger said a number of customers had already purchased raffle tickets Wednesday. The gun will be raffled off July 31 at Second Amendment Sports’ grand opening celebration.

The co-owner said the store, which has been around for six years but recently added a shooting and training facility, has done similar raffles before for local causes and chose the AR-15 because of its popularity. The rifle’s retail value is about $750, he said.

“They’re very popular in sales,” Irslinger said. “Our goal is to raise as much money as possible, so we want to use as popular a product as we can use. If we struggle to sell tickets, we’re not making a difference.”

In addition to her issues with the raffle itself, Larimer said she felt the money was being put into the wrong fund and should have been given to the National Compassion Fund.

Earlier in June, dozens of family members of gun violence victims signed a letter objecting to the OneOrlando fund because a spokeswoman had said the fund would benefit local nonprofits, not the victims of the attack.

A June 17 Associated Press story said the leaders of the fund changed course, pledging to give money to the victims. Second Amendment Sports marketing director Vic Santi said several officials from the fund have assured him the money will go to the victims and their families.