Youth Baseball League Raffle Tremendously Successful After AR-15 Put Up for Grabs

So far an Illinois little league baseball team has seen "tremendous" support for its fundraising raffle of an AR-15. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

The key to a successful raffle to raise funds is to offer something a lot of people might want. Atwood-Hammond Little League in Illinois, which only raised $10 in its hog raffle last year, decided to go for an item that has been flying off the shelves since December -- an AR-15.

The gun shop owner donating the firearm described the overwhelming response the raffle has gotten so far to Fox News Radio:

“My phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Charidy Bucher, co-owner of the Atwood Armory shop. “The response has been tremendous.”

Bucher said her phone has been ringing since 4:30 a.m.

“People from out of state have been calling,” she said.

She said the winner of the rifle will also receive 260 rounds of ammunition.

“Ammo is just as hard to get as the firearms these days, unfortunately,” she said.

Funds from the raffle, which ends June 28, will go to purchasing new equipment that the league currently can't afford, according to WAND-TV. Watch the report:

Some might balk at the idea of a youth baseball team raffling a weapon in their effort to raise money for the season, but the league's commissioner Steven McClain acknowledged to the local news station WFIE that it might "sound crazy," but he has taught his children proper use of a gun. Bucher also told Fox News Radio many people in central Illinois are "interested in preserving their rights to keep and bear arms.”

Little League, which is an official non-profit organizing youth baseball and softball, told Fox this team in particular was not affiliated with them. Although Little League in general doesn't tell its teams how to raise money, the non-profit's spokesman said "we certainly would not recommend one of our leagues do something like that.”

The winner of the raffle will have a background check and must provide an Illinois Firearms Owner's Identification card, as if they had purchased the gun from the shop.

The same shop recently raffled off an AR-15 for a cancer foundation and raised $7,000 in two months.