Over the objections of its past president, the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association is resurrecting an old practice: Raffling off a shotgun.
“I think it sends the wrong message,” said former Howard County Police Chief Wayne Livesay. “I thought it was wrong for a police agency to put guns on the streets. Why do they want to put guns out there?”
Overwhelmingly, the chiefs association voted to begin selling raffle tickets for the firearm for September?s annual conference in Ocean City, said president Jeffrey Spaulding, Westminster?s police chief.
“There?s an interest in this type of raffle within our membership, which includes senior members of law enforcement,” Spaulding said. “Everything will be done in accordance with state law. It?s been proven successful in the past in terms of raising funds. It?s a hunting firearm. It?s a legal sport. It won?t be going to someone who doesn?t have a legal right to possess it.”
But Livesay points to last week?s shooting at Northern Illinois and the murders of the Browning family in Cockeysville as examples of how firearms can get into the wrong hands.
“It just makes no sense to me,” he said.
Sue Peschin, a board member of CeaseFire Maryland, said the raffle was “not the smartest idea.”
“These guys should ask themselves how they would feel if the gun ended up stolen or in an armed robbery or, worse, killing a fellow cop?” she said.
Johns Hopkins criminologist Sheldon Greenberg said that he agrees the gun raffle sends the wrong message, but said it doesn?t present a real threat to public safety.
“On the one hand, law enforcement says, ?We?re drowning under the wave of weaponry?; why should any police organization choose to add one more weapon to the tidal wave? In principle it?s a sound argument,” he said. “But it?s only a emotional argument. In reality, it doesn?t hold water. Rifles and shotguns are easily accessible to almost anyone. You can go into a gun store and come out with a shotgun right now in two hours.”
