Baseball team sells AR-15 in raffle

It’s a teaching moment for third graders in Neosho, Missouri, but nobody’s interesting in teaching and they’re not all that thrilled about learning, apparently because they’re going ahead with raffling off an AR-15 rifle to support their baseball team, the Kansas City Star reports.

AR-15? School? Kids? Get it?

Levi Patterson, the coach of a 9-and-under baseball team, is going ahead with the gun raffle. He owns a gun store in town and says he came up with the idea before the shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“I applaud them for standing up for what they believe in,” Patterson said of people who thought the idea was tone deaf and criticized it on Facebook. “I just think they have feelings to this specific type of gun (that are) different than people around here do,” he told the paper.

After the criticism, there was a surge in raffle ticket sales from around the country.

Evil will always exist, Patterson said of the shooting.

No kidding.

Op-ed: Don’t Let My Classmates’ Deaths Be in Vain (NY Times)