Youth baseball team under fire for gun raffle

JOPLIN, Missouri -- A youth baseball team in Missouri is getting national attention for raffling an AR-15 to raise money for traveling expenses.

A father of one of the players is the co-founder of a local gun manufacturer, which provided the gun.

The raffle was organized before last week's school shooting in Florida involving an AR-15, that left 17 people dead.

The city of Neosho's mayor says that makes the timing unfortunate but he supports the raffle and thinks opposition to it is coming from people who live elsewhere.

Mayor Ben Baker told KODE-TV, "They've been overwhelmed with a lot of positive support. I mean, the majority of it in this area is almost all, all the people are in support."

Baker says gun raffles are not uncommon in southwest Missouri and he adds that AR-15's are perfect hunting rifles and his children shoot them.