AR-15 being raffled off to fund graduation at school that narrowly avoided mass shooting 4 years ago

Some parents at a Florida high school are upset after a different group of parents decided to fund this year's graduation in part by raffling off an AR-15-style rifle.

News 6 Orlando reports that a raffle being held to fund this year's graduation at Astronaut High School in Titusville, Florida will include an assault rifle as a potential prize, which has "provoked worry and confusion" among parents who worry about the message it's sending at a time when such rifles are routinely used for mass shootings.

"Just what are we teaching our kids?" asked local resident Kiyah Edwards during a Facebook debate about the raffle. "That guns are OK? Absolutely are NOT OK. This is why people are dying like flies so easily."

The debate around the raffle is especially charged because Astronaut High School four years ago had a brush with what could have been a deadly school shooting.

"Two students in 2017 were found to have had the 'clear ability' to carry out an attack on the school with an arsenal that one of them had hidden in his bedroom," News 6 Orlando reports. "According to police, their stockpile included .22-caliber rifles, a .380 pistol, loaded magazines, homemade axes, knives and machetes as well as improvised gas masks and bulletproof vests. The plot was uncovered when police were tipped off by someone who knew what the students were planning."