North Dakota Hockey Club Stirs Controversy With Gun Raffle

North Dakotans are no strangers to gun raffles. It seems every time I go out to eat or for drinks with friends I get hit up to buy a raffle ticket from this or that group where, among the prices, there are a bunch of guns. So I’m scratching my head as to why a raffle being put on by the West Fargo Hockey Club is stirring controversy.

Other than the fact that gun control is very much in the news, and people are overreacting.

Anyway, the hockey club is raffling off 200 guns – some of them the sort often described as “assault weapons.” Now the story has hit the national media, with Sports Illustrated, The Huffington Post and The Atlantic all writing stories.

I really don’t get it. As I’ve already alluded to, gun raffles happen in North Dakota all the time. This is a pretty big one – 200 guns – but that’s just a matter of degree. One gun or 200 guns, this is a perfectly legal raffle for a perfectly legal product.

The raffle page is here. It’s not clear whether you need to be present to win, but it might be worth buying some tickets to support the club and send a message on gun rights.