Multiple media reports on Saturday night say several people walked out of a fundraising event for the Cameron Park Firefighters Association after they saw one of the raffle prizes was an AR-15. That rifle was described as being similar to the weapon used last Wednesday at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida.
News partner KCRA says Allison Merrill was at the annual crab feed for to benefit the association when she noticed the rifle with other items intended for a raffle. She reportedly left the even in protest about 30 minutes after it started.
According to KCRA, Merrill said, "These are our first responders responding to these types of events -- these shootings, and they should be concerned with putting one of those types of weapons out in our community and instead it was being given out as a prize."
Scott McLean, a spokesman for CalFire, which supervises programs that are beneficiaries of the Cameron Park fundraiser. McLean tells KCRA that "no harm was intended." Additionally, McClean tells the Sacramento Bee reports that AR-15 was taken to a gun store for a mandatory ten-day waiting period and background check, and that the winner of the raffle will not be able to take possession until after those legal requirements have been met.