Georgia sheriff's annual gun raffle banned from Facebook

CARROLLTON, Ga. - The Carroll County sheriff says Facebook will no longer allow his agency to post about their yearly gun raffle to raise money for community programs. 

It is called 30 Guns in 30 Days and has made national headlines over the last four years. 

Sheriff Terry Langley says Carroll County is gun country, and he says he understands some people might not like that, but it is true. 

He says after three years of posting and promoting their annual gun giveaway on Facebook, the social media platform is wrong to not only pull the plug on it but threaten to close down its page as well as those of any employee who posts about it. 

"Well, it just shocks me because we’ve done it so many years," Langley said. "We live in an area where there is a lot of gun owners, a lot of hunters, a lot of people who collect weapons." 

Sheriff Langley says since 2019, his agency has used the proceeds from the 30 Guns in 30 Days raffle to fund a youth camp, a citizens’ academy, a free gun safety course among other things that would have no money otherwise. 

He says gun ownership is a way of life in Carroll County, so a chance to win a new firearm for the cost of a $100 raffle ticket has been popular with residents, although at times controversial elsewhere outside the county. 

"These are people who are going to buy guns and collect them anyway. So, this gives them an opportunity to get a gun at a cheaper rate and help a good cause," the sheriff said. 

There is growing outrage in the county over Facebook's decision to ban any posting about the gun raffle to be held all month long in September. 

The sheriff’s office says it will be forced to use its own webpage to promote the event and announce the daily winners. 

That $100 ticket gives the buyer 30 chances to win. So, a winning ticket goes back into the pot for a chance to be drawn again. 

Raffle winners must be 21 and must pass a federal background check to receive the firearm, which he says includes handguns, rifles and shotguns. 

Anyone, even people not from Georgia, can buy a ticket, no matter where you live. The agency has a Venmo account for online ticket purchases. 

They tell FOX 5 a deputy who posted about the upcoming gun raffle and how to buy tickets had his Facebook account shut down for two weeks. With 45,000 followers and daily posts they say are important to the community, the sheriff’s office does not want to jeopardize what they consider an important way to communicate with their residents. So, they have appealed to Facebook, but so far they have been unsuccessful.