A United Way of Sante Fe board member reached out to United Way Worldwide and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to stop another local chapter from raffling off guns to raise money for charities supported by United Way.
Board member Miranda Viscoli intervened when she learned that United Way of Otero County New Mexico was raffling off firearms.
On the surface, it appears strange that a member of one United Way chapter would go to such lengths to disrupt the activities of another chapter. But the NRA-ILA reports that in addition to working with the United Way, Viscoli “also happens to be the co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence.”
Her efforts to thwart the gun raffle for charity were successful. United Way Worldwide sent a letter to the Otero County chapter threatening “to revoke their United Way affiliation if the chapter did not terminate the raffle and remove any mention of it from their webpage.” Nevertheless, Viscoli also contacted the ATF and “encouraged” them to investigate the possible raffle.
The ATF looked into it and found that the rifle was “complying with all laws.”
After the raffle was halted, Viscoli told KRQE, “There seems to be a disconnect between their mission and their fundraising tactics. The very items that they are choosing to raffle will go back into the communities already hurt by gun violence against women and children.”
The NRA-ILA had a different take: “For Ms. Viscoli, jeopardizing funding for charity and wasting law enforcement resources were no hurdles to pursuing her own personal anti-gun vendetta.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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