An Ohio youth baseball team made up of pre-teen players canceled a fundraiser in which guns were being raffled off after facing backlash from the community.

The Hilliard Colts organization in Hilliard, Ohio, had planned to raffle off two handguns and a Smith & Wesson M&P-15, an AR-15 military-style rifle, according to The Washington Post.

Kevin Yankovich, commissioner of the Hilliard Baseball Association, said the team canceled the event after members of the community had criticized it.

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A youth baseball team in Ohio had to cancel its gun raffle after facing backpack from the community.

The Hilliard Colts organization in Hilliard, Ohio, had organized a fundraiser in which raffle contestants could enter to win two handguns and a Smith & Wesson M&P-15, an AR-15 military-style rifle, according to The Washington Post.

The event, which was going to feature a DJ, cold brew, and desserts, was sponsored by an indoor shooting range and firearms store.

Though team parents and coaches thought the raffle could help them raise money for an indoor hitting facility for the pre-teen players, other members of the community were quick to criticize it.

"How can you ask kids to have active-shooter drills in school and after school ask them to sell raffle tickets to win weapons that you are trying to protect yourself against?" Lori Hamlin, a woman from Hilliard, outside Columbus, told The Post.

This isn't the first youth team to raffle off guns as a fundraiser. In 2018, the Associated Press reported that such raffles were being held in Ohio, Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California and Nebraska.

Kevin Yankovich, commissioner of the Hilliard Baseball Association, told The Post that while the raffle was "completely legal and being run in a responsible manner," the team decided to not carry out the event.

The father-of-five said that critics believed raffling off guns promoted violence in the city. While he disputed this, he said the raffle would still be canceled.

"We felt the items being raffled didn't reflect our baseball organization," he said.