A Louisiana police officer got here disturbingly near raffling off an AR-15-style rifle this week in a misguided try and help victims of home violence. The hassle was discontinued after activists in St. Tammany Parish noticed a flyer promoting tickets on social media.
The digital leaflet depicted a Core rifle and a smiling portrait of Lt. Patrick Casnave, an officer with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Workplace who was described as a “Superhero” for a home violence nonprofit.
“Lt. Patrick Casnave , AKA Superhero for Safe Harbor, is raffling off a rifle … to learn Secure Harbor,” learn the flyer, which was obtained by JS. “CORE AR-15 Valued at $800. $10 every or 3 for $25.”
The raffle quickly confronted pushback from activists like Cynthia Weatherly.
The LGBTQ advocate, who beforehand fought a local library board to maintain challenged titles out there, stated she was shocked when she noticed the flyer on Fb.
“I had simply pulled up in my driveway once I noticed the advert and my coronary heart sunk instantly,” she instructed JS on Friday by way of electronic mail. “I don’t contemplate myself a really emotional individual and I’m comparatively introverted, however I used to be instantly struck by the insensitivity of this raffle.”
So Weatherly referred to as the quantity on the flyer and spoke to Sgt. Carli Messina, one other officer on the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Workplace. Weatherly “defined how inappropriate” the raffle appeared, however stated she was instructed it “was largely geared toward Regulation enforcement and their family and friends.”
The activist rejected this as a justification to carry a drawing for a lethal weapon.
“As if the gun going into the arms of a LEO [law enforcement officer] made it okay,” she instructed JS.
Although actual figures are murky, Weatherly cited one estimate that home violence amongst legislation enforcement is “15 times higher than the final inhabitants.”
Of their dialogue concerning the raffle, Weatherly stated Messina tried to shift consideration away from the rifle by arguing that “alcohol additionally contributes to home violence.” Weatherly instructed JS that she “felt dismissed” by Messina’s statements.
“I acquired teary eyed as I sat in my driveway,” stated Weatherly, noting that her mom had been a sufferer of home violence.
“I can’t think about being within the midst of this and attempting to flee that form of scenario and figuring out that the folks ‘serving to’ are actively fundraising by placing extra [guns] … out into the world,” she continued.
In accordance with the Instructional Fund to Cease Gun Violence, round 4.5 million girls within the U.S. have been threatened with a gun, and practically 1 million girls have been shot or shot at by a companion. Ladies are 5 instances extra more likely to be killed if their abuser has a gun.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. However this isn’t the primary time that legislation enforcement has raffled off weapons within the U.S.
In Missouri, the Columbia Police Officers Affiliation reportedly stated it will proceed with a firearm giveaway final 12 months, regardless of public outrage after current mass shootings nationwide.
The Bergenfield Police Division in New Jersey tried the identical in 2019. The hassle was reportedly thwarted when the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Workplace intervened, arguing {that a} state statute prohibited freely giving weapons as prizes.
Win McNamee by way of Getty Photographs
Mel Manuel, an LGBTQ rights activist who’s working for Congress as a Democrat in Louisiana’s 1st District, instructed JS in addition they realized concerning the flyer on Fb — and genuinely weren’t “certain it was actual” at first.
“This isn’t a gun for looking deer, it’s for looking folks,” wrote Manuel, who makes use of they/them pronouns.
“Raffling it off to help a nonprofit serving victims of home violence is unbelievably tone deaf, particularly provided that the presence of a gun in a home violence scenario will increase the danger of murder by 500%,” they continued.
Manuel’s opponent within the congressional race, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), has espoused bewildering views on weapons prior to now.
Final 12 months, Scalise stated that passing gun security laws to curb mass shootings could be flawed, arguing that “there wasn’t a dialog about banning airplanes” after the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults.
He additionally said that faculty shootings didn’t occur within the Nineteen Sixties, when “we really had prayer at school.” However gun management advocates are demanding extra stringent regulation, not prayer, to stop violence.
Manuel famous that Casnave’s involvement within the raffle, which Secure Harbor finally canceled, is baffling.
“As an officer whose job it’s to stop crime, I can’t think about why he’d wish to add one other semi-automatic weapon onto our streets,” they wrote.
Need assistance? Within the U.S., name 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
