Ill. baseball league raffling AR-15 to raise money

ATWOOD, Ill. (AP) — A youth baseball league in the eastern Illinois town of Atwood says it badly needs to raise money. So it's auctioning off an AR-15 rifle.

The Atwood-Hammond league raised just $10 with a raffle last year for more conventional prizes. According to WAND-TV in Decatur (http://bit.ly/XGBUKH), a local gun shop provided the league with the AR-15 to raffle this year. Atwood and Hammond are small towns about 25 miles southwest of Champaign.

League officials say their baseball equipment badly needs repair or replacement that the league can't afford.

Charidy Bucher is the co-owner of the Atwood Armory shop. She says the winner will have to go through a background check and have an Illinois Firearms Owner's Identification card just as they would if the bought the gun in her shop.

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Information from: WAND-TV, http://www.wandtv.com