Some Oklahomans Think Gun Raffles Are Wrong & Dystopian

When it comes to raising funds for a specific charity or cause, some people tend to forget about the effort and focus mainly on the prize. Believing Girl Scouts is a cookie company above all else, I'm guilty of it too. I still buy my Tagalongs though.

Some schools sell books to their students. I remember the excitement I felt walking into a Scholastic Book Fair in sixth grade with a twenty in my pocket... did that make my school a bookstore? No. Other schools sell Blue & Gold sausage and bacon to raise funds... It doesn't make that school a meat processor now does it?

So how does a local Oklahoma organization without the ability or hook-up to sell books, sausage, or cookies go about raising money? For quite a long time, the Oklahoma norm has been offering up the chance to win a gun through a raffle.

How is this not common knowledge? Are some people really so aimlessly trapt in their safe-space and air-locked self-inhibited bubble that 2022 is truly the first time they've seen a gun raffle?

I would assume that this is just a side-effect of Oklahoma's growing diversity... with hoards of people moving to our affordable state from other states... but even then, the only anti-firearm states in that particular top ten are Colorado and California? The hoards of Texans moving here should be familiar with such a thing... Are we just spotting a fragile Okie-newb in the wild?

Here's the so-called "dystopian" travesty that has opened their fundraising up to 81.4 million potential raffle participants.

If the graphic isn't parsing for you, here's the gist...

A travel-ball team of 8-and-under baseball sluggers, the Mustang Spiders, are trying to raise money to pay for things like tournament entries and other team needs. As a prize, they're offering up a modest Palmetto State Armory AR-15 semi-automatic firearm.

Seems pretty standard, so where is the rub?

This all stems from a thread over on the Oklahoma Reddit where I'm sure OP (original poster) probably saw this horrid and dystopian display of how the general non-OKC/Paseo District public roams the plains Mad Max-style in search of crude oil and drilling pay.

OK, that's unfair for me to say. I cannot assume who OP is just because I find their opinion and reaction to this a little, well, hilariously un-Oklahoman. It's far too easy to attack some rando on the internet and create an unfounded narrative just for my own egotistical need to shat on their first impression opinion. We're all better than that.

Here's the headline.

But it's in the body of the thread where it really gets good...

If you've never been on Reddit, it's a place for people that couldn't share toys when they were kids. The stubborn type of people that grew into adults that can't accept the fact that most people share differing opinions. On the Oklahoma Reddit, if you don't conform to toe the line for fake feels and splay your false bleeding heart for upvotes, you'll generally get bullied into banished oblivion. It's a truly depressing place to lurk.

All the same, no matter the subject, if there's a way a person can score upvotes by offering true information. They'll forego their initial urge to conform and hope their half-googled opinionated fact will survive the following hoard... which is exactly what happened.

One brave soul chose to use logic and understanding to explain how this isn't weird, is totally normal, and not "just a country" thing aside from a solid way to raise funds.

Anyone else would assume that should suffice as the end of the conversation, but occasionally OP will embrace their reeee and double-down, saying something else like...

Like it always is at this point, another brave soul is always there to volunteer as tribute... following up and explaining how said prize-firearm will still require a mandatory background check and be entered into the federal firearms registration that is Form 4473... and you'd think that would be the end of the conversation, but we've truly been blessed by OP.

If you were to enroll in a course class called Reddit 101, you would learn the easiest way to end an argument that wasn't going your way is to evoke an emotional response in the hope others will be inspired by your hollow, tragic hyperbole and stand a post beside you.

It truly is a magical Reddit thread when one person sinks their own ship of fake social points in trying to sway the logical and the correct. Their dedication is almost admirable if not best used as some hilariousness.

After earning their downvotes and being explained the same thing over and over, time and time again, the last step in the Reddit circle is to strike a bargain in the hopes to restore the social currency... To earn enough upvotes to land back at a neutral point... As if they never said something so stupid in the first place...

A valuable lesson has been learned.

While there is a distinguished and easily identifiable user demographic for most subreddits, sometimes the correct information wins above the false feels and impotent rage.

It's legal, lawful, and since Oklahomans love their firearms so much, a solid way to raise money.

In the case of the Mustang Spiders 8&under baseball team, if you'd like to donate, here's a link to their Facebook page. In the firearm market we see today, $5 for one ticket or 5 tickets for $20 might make this basic AR-15 the deal of the year.