US kids asked to sell raffle tickets for an AM-15 assault rifle

Parents in Ohio are outraged after their children were asked to sell raffle tickets, with one of the prizes an AM-15 assault rifle.

The money was being raised for the New Richmond Junior Lions Football team. 

One mother complained to the club, saying she didn't want her seven-year-old daughter selling guns.

"I highly doubt that something would happen with the gun - but say it did?" Heather Chilton told local station WXIX. "Say one of the kids in the high school got a hold of it - got the AR-15 or AM-15 and shot up a school with it, and I'm the one that sold the raffle ticket to his dad?

"I can't see them selling some type of semi-automatic rifle when we have all these mass shootings going on, going door to door."

Another, the mother of a four-year-old cheerleader for the team, feared for her daughter's safety.

The weapon is the same type used in the Dayton mass shooting three weeks ago, only an hour's drive from New Richmond, Time reported. 

The AM-15, similar to an AR-15, isn't the only gun ticket buyers can win - there's also a Glock 9mm pistol. 

The US has had hundreds of mass shootings this year, according to the online Gun Violence Archive, and more than 2100 since dozens of children were gunned down at Sandy Hook in 2012.

Club president Robert Wooten told local media the media attention on the raffle has actually increased sales, but they're going to rethink it for next year's fundraiser.

Parents who object to their children raffling off guns have instead been offered raffle tickets for a gift basket.

Newshub.