These raffles are just normal activities for most of us, but for the gun control activists at The Trace, they're a real problem. The Bloomberg-funded website is out with a new report blasting Shriners International for allowing chapters to host gun raffles, which are an instrumental part in raising money to allow these chapters to operate and support the Shriners Children's network of hospitals and clinics. 

This year alone, nearly a third of the Shriners’ 177 U.S.-based chapters hosted the lucrative fundraisers, often referred to as a “Sportsman’s Raffle”; some have been hosting them for decades. One chapter, in Texas, recently held its 81st, while the Detroit chapter — revered as the fundraising exemplar — commemorated its 20th year of gun raffles, which it now holds twice annually. This year alone, each Detroit raffle put more than 100 guns in the hands of its winners. In 2024, The Trace documented 51 local Shriners chapters advertising more than 4,500 firearms.  

The Shriners International organization did not respond to requests for an interview, nor did Shriners Children’s, formerly known as Shriners Hospitals for Children. 

“It’s just a tool for us,” said Mitchell Devrees, the Saladin chapter’s “potentate,” or leader. He won a crossbow as we were talking and, later, a 40 gauge shotgun. “We would be selling batteries or soap or whatever if it was the best vehicle.”

Winners of the gun raffles go through background checks before they're able to take possession of their new firearm, but that's not The Trace's issue. No, they have a problem with the fact that guns are being used as prizes at all. And the fact that the Shriners help kids get medical care makes the raffles even more offensive to the anti-gunners, who would rather see "toy drives, rodeos, tree festivals, silent auctions, football fundraisers, car shows, barbeques, or even disparate circuses" take their place. 

One Shriners hospital, in Philadelphia, is treating a child who was paralyzed by a gunshot wound. Shafir Tate, 17, was hit by a stray bullet last year while he was waiting for a friend at his neighborhood basketball court. His mother, Jasmine Tate-Supplee, said he was transported by ambulance to St. Christopher’s hospital before he was moved to Shriners. “You never think anything like this is going to happen, not to you, your family, your child. It is emotionally hard to wrap your head around. He was paralyzed,” she said.

Her family has joined a community of child patients living with the ever-changing realities of spinal cord injury. “There have been good things to come out of this,” she said, describing the level of attention and dedicated care her son continues to receive at Shriners, free of cost. Though she said she “really doesn’t like” the fact that local chapters hold gun raffles, “I’ve also seen the good they are doing with my own eyes, in multitudes. Here and outside of this country. So many people would not have been able to receive this care.”

The Trace says that "[a]ccording to tax law and the Shriners’ own organizational bylaws, the gun raffles should in no way be associated with the temple’s philanthropy, Shriners Children’s." And indeed, the money raised by these raffles generally goes towards the operating expenses of local Shriners chapters, which in turn allows them to raise money specifically for Shriners Children's. Without the funds generated by the raffles, some chapters would be forced to shut down, which in turn would mean less money being spent to help sick kids. 

If these chapters are being disingenuous about where the money they're raising is being spent, that should be easy enough to rectify. But even if these local Shriners groups make it explicitly clear that the funds are not going directly to Shriners Children's, that wouldn't be good enough for The Trace. Guns are bad in their eyes, and no good can come of them; not when they're used for self-defense, for sport... or to generate the funds necessary to keep these local chapters of a charitable organization afloat.