Tucson GOP to raffle gun -- 9 months after Giffords shooting
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On the morning of Jan. 8, a gunman fired a 9-millimeter Glock semiautomatic pistol into a crowd that had come to meet Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a supermarket in Tucson. He killed six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and gravely wounded Giffords.
Nearly nine months later, the Tucson-area Republican Party is planning to raise money by raffling off a Glock handgun, the Arizona Republic reported. That has enraged some in a city still emotionally scarred by the massacre.
Jeff Rogers, Pima County Democratic Party chairman, told the newspaper that the raffle showed ‘incredibly poor judgment.’
James Kelley, a member of the county GOP executive committee, called it ‘insensitive and stupid.’
‘Are there any rational adults left in Tucson’s GOP?’ blogged Republic columnist Linda Valdez. ‘Maybe. Get a magnifying glass.’
But Mike Shaw, interim Pima County GOP chairman, shrugged off the uproar. Giffords has been a strong 2nd Amendment advocate, he pointed out in the newspaper article, and owned a Glock herself.
Giffords’ district, which stretches to the Mexican border, is a hotbed of gun-rights advocacy -– so much so that her opponent in November, Republican Jesse Kelly, held a fundraiser at which potential voters could shoot an assault rifle with him.
‘That Glock is no more responsible for those deaths and the congresswoman’s injuries than a No. 2 pencil is responsible for cheating on a test,’ Shaw told the Republic.
Shaw said the Glock 23 .40-caliber handgun -– which is to be raffled off with three 12-round magazines, an adjustable grip and a case -– was left over from a similar event last year. The winner never claimed it.
Regardless, Jennifer Johnson, a state Democratic Party spokeswoman, was quoted as asking, ‘How hard would it be to raffle off concert tickets or a dinner?’
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-- Ashley Powers in Las Vegas
Twitter.com/ashleypowers