A gun store in the suburbs of Chicago is raising funds for the victims of the Orlando shooting by raffling off its most popular product – an AR-15 military-style rifle similar to the one used in the massacre.

Second Amendment Sports in McHenry, Illinois, has pledged to give all funds raised from raffle tickets of $5 each to the One Orlando Fund, a fund established by a local organization with ties to the city of Orlando, to help those affected by the mass shooting. The store’s owners, Bert Irslinger Jr and his father Bert Sr, have said they will donate $2,000 on top of what is raised.

“People who are more for the second amendment are very much behind [the raffle] and requesting tickets,” Vic Santi, director of marketing at Second Amendment Sports, told the Guardian. But he admitted: “Definitely, people have concerns that we are doing this type of firearm.”

Santi and the store’s owners considered the mass shooting in Orlando a “terrorist attack,” and a “hate crime” and felt the raffle is a way for them to show support.

The AR-15 was selected as it has been the six-year old store’s most purchased item, Santi added.

The attack at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando earlier this month, which left 49 people dead, plus the gunman – reignited the debate over firearms in the US, with many calling for restrictions on the sale of semi-automatic weapons.

The US House of Representatives will vote next week on legislation to prevent suspected terrorists from purchasing guns, Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday.



The gunman, Omar Mateen, is reported to have used a Sig Sauer MCX .223-caliber rifle, which uses AR-15 magazines and clips.

Local resident Kathleen Larimer, who lost her son in the 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, said she found the raffle offensive.

“Guns are not toys,” she told the Chicago Tribune. “They should be taken seriously. I’m not saying they should be illegal, but raffling off a gun is not taking its killing power seriously.”

Santi said he spoke with Larimer and understands her concerns about the usage of the rifle but, due to its popularity, the AR-15 was likely to raise the most funds in a raffle.

“If people don’t like what we’re doing, buy a ticket, win the firearm, we’ll gladly destroy it in public for you,” he added.

“[Neither] the city [of Orlando], nor the fund, are a sponsor or endorsing the fundraiser,” Cassandra Anne Lafser, press secretary for Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer, who helped establish the One Orlando fund through a local city-created not-for-profit organization, told the Guardian via email.

It is unclear how popular the raffle has been. Santi said he personally had received around a dozen requests for tickets in the past day.

The winner of the raffle will be announced on 31 July, to coincide with the grand opening of the store’s new 4,000 square foot facility.