How would you like to win an AR-15? Corey Stewart, Virginia GOP candidate for governor, used the campaign stunt to draw attention to his stand to expand gun rights in the Commonwealth.
After an online Christmas campaign that asked supporters to sign up (and give donations, if possible) to win an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, the weapon was given away at a gun store in Woodbridge on Wednesday.
Navy veteran, NRA member and Woodbridge resident Rick Thompson was picked as the winner in a blind drawing of 3,000 participants.
Stewart Campaign Chair Spence Rogers came up with attention-grabbing drawing to differentiate Stewart from Republican opponent Ed Gillespie.
"We've just seen an influx of volunteers. Volunteers and voters don't get mobilized if you’re boring. Ed Gillespie is boring," said Rogers, who ran Ted Cruz's campaign for president.
"The more people that do carry weapons for self-defense, the safer we will all be," Stewart added.
PREVIOUS: Trump campaign to Stewart: You're fired!
Stewart wants to do away with the $15 state fee for concealed weapon permits in Virginia. Then he wants to get rid of the permit altogether so that anybody who legally owns a gun, could conceal it.
"This isn't a service that government is providing. This is a restriction that the government is placing on Second Amendment rights. And, I don't think you should have to pay for that. In fact, I don't think that there should be a permit at all," said Stewart.
Anybody who buys a gun from a dealer has to go through a background check which Mr. Thompson did since the gun was sold from a license gun dealer, All Shooters Tactical in Woodbridge. But background checks are not required in Virginia for private sales.
Gun control advocate and Brady Campaign volunteer Julie King Keller said that's a big problem.
"There are people at gun shows that have signs up that say 'No background check required.' So if you know you're not going to pass a background check there you go. And there are sites on the internet that say 'No Background Check Required,'" Keller pointed out.
Stewart called the so-called "gun show loop hole" a fallacy and said it doesn't really exist.
On the Democratic side in the Virginia governor's race, Lt. Governor Ralph Northam is up against former Congressman Tom Perriello from Charlottesville.
