HOULTON, Maine — After receiving some online criticism, the owner of a gun shop in town says she sees no problems with raffling a gun to benefit a chemical-free graduation party for the senior class at Hodgdon Middle-High School.
Michelle Crane, owner of MACS Trading Post in Houlton, said Thursday morning that she doesn’t understand why such a big deal is being made out of raffling a gun. After all, she has donated a number of firearms for various raffles over the years, and not once did she receive any backlash about it.
The online controversy ignited Wednesday when Portland television station WGME shared Crane’s Facebook post about the raffle and asked viewers whether they thought it was “appropriate.”
In light of recent school shootings and student protests around the country, including Maine, over school safety and gun regulations, some respondents felt the gun raffle was inappropriate.
“Very poor choice of prize,” said one post.
“I’m all about gun rights but this isn’t appropriate for a school fundraiser,” said another.
“What are these people thinking, be respectful of the kids who lost their lives in a school where it should be safe,” one post stated.
The Project Graduation committee is comprised of parents and the raffle is not directly associated with the school.
Despite the criticism, the vast majority of people responding to Crane and WGME on Facebook agree with Crane’s position and, according to Crane, the controversy has boosted sales of raffle tickets.
“Where do we buy tickets,” asked one post.
“Big shout out to WGME for the free advertisement,” said another.
The Project Graduation raffle tickets are being sold for $5 for a chance to win a Smith and Wesson SD9 9mm handgun. The drawing will be Saturday, March 31.
The gun winner must complete the appropriate form 4473 required by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and must pass a federal background check to ensure eligibility to own a firearm.
Crane said in a statement prepared for the media that “we are a gun store holding a gun raffle with the intended audience of our local customers who want to help support our (Hodgdon) senior class.”
Crane’s daughter is a senior at Hodgdon Middle/High School.
The Project Graduation raffle, which started several days before the Feb. 14 school shooting that resulted in the deaths of 17 students and staffers, is one of three gun raffles currently taking place at the store. Others are to raise money for a veterans monument for the town of Linneus and a softball tournament held in memory of a local soldier who died in the line of duty.
“This is the same type of raffle we have held for an annual memorial weekend for our dear friend (Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Henderson) who gave his life serving our country in Afghanistan in 2012,” Crane said.
Crane said her business also has donated firearms for numerous other causes over the years, such as local museums raising money for repairs and families struggling with vast medical bills due to life-threatening illnesses.
“The money from this raffle will go to support the costs of our local Project Graduation,” she said in her media release. “If you understand Project Graduation, you realize it is an organized effort by parents, students and communities to provide a safe, encouraging and memorable place and time for seniors to celebrate all of their achievements in a place free from the pressures society can place on them of drugs, alcohol or even violence.”
“We will not apologize for supporting our youth and community, nor our constitutional right to bear arms,” Crane added.
Hodgdon Middle/High School Principal Mary Harbison declined to comment and SAD 70 Superintendent Scott Richardson is currently on a mission trip to Haiti and was not available for comment.
Although she declined to say exactly how many raffle tickets have been sold so far, Crane said Thursday that sales have certainly increased in the past couple of days.
“There have been people in to buy tickets who live right here in Houlton that I have never seen before,” Crane said. “I had one gentleman buy 100 tickets. Yesterday, between 4-5 p.m. I sold about 120 tickets over the phone.”
Sales also are reaching beyond the town of Houlton, as Crane said she has been contacted by people from around the country who were interested in purchasing tickets after reading about it online.
Josh Neubig of Waldoboro and Trevor Bates of Cushing drove nearly 200 miles to Houlton Thursday just to purchase tickets after reading about the raffle on Facebook.
“My friend Trevor asked me if I wanted to go on a road trip, and I said, ‘Sure,’” Neubig said. “It’s for a good cause and I am big hunter, gun advocate and owner. We headed out at 6 this morning to get here.”
Bates said he saw the post online Wednesday evening and wondered why people “were making such a hubbub about it.”
“The whole situation to me is just silly,” he said. “It’s not the firearm (that kills), it’s the person. I messaged back and forth with Michelle on Facebook, asking her about the gun and what other types of firearms they had. I just decided, ‘Why not? Let’s go up.’”
The two men said they spent roughly $40 on fuel and $20 each on tickets. Bates said he knew what he was getting into, in terms of the distance to get to Houlton, because he studied for one year at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
Leonard Wilde, the parent of a Hodgdon senior and a member of the Hodgdon Project Graduation committee, was also in Crane’s store Thursday morning. Wilde said he sold 10 tickets Wednesday evening after news reports first came out.
“Project Graduation is the one making the money,” Wilde said. “Even though the money is going to be spent for the kids, the kids themselves are not getting money from this.”
Money raised from the raffle will be used to purchase door prizes for the graduating seniors for their party, held the night of the school’s graduation. Prizes for that event can range from small items like gift cards to flat screen televisions.
Crane said response from the local community has been “overwhelmingly positive” with the only negative comments coming from Facebook. The majority of those opposed to the raffle appear to be people from either outside the local area or from other states.
“I just don’t understand (the opposing view),” she added. “They are trying to link the school and a gun, but there is no link. This is about local people supporting each other.”
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- Trevor Bates, left, of Cushing and Josh Neubig of Waldoboro traveled nearly 200 miles Thursday to purchase tickets in a controversial gun raffle for Hodgdon’s Project Graduation after hearing about it online. (Joseph Cyr)
