Local Chamber President and Navy Vet Resigns Over AR-15 Raffle

By Beth Baumann

21-year Navy veteran Matt Leonard, current President and CEO of the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in Lewiston, ME, resigned after a fallout over the chamber’s decision to raffle off an AR-15.

The Chamber sent out an email on Election Day announcing the gun raffle. The following day, they retracted and said the raffle was cancelled.

The Chamber’s board of directors was aware of a potential raffle but never fully vetted the details before the email was sent out.

Leonard explained the turn of events to the Lewiston-Auburn Sun-Journal in an interview:

Certainly, there was no intent to release that on Election Day or election week. Part of my roles and responsibility here is to have an understanding of the political environment, have a pulse. I certainly am cognizant of the fact that that was the absolute worst time to send that. It wasn’t intentional. Unfortunately, it went out, and it really struck a nerve with many of our members and members of the community.

Chamber member Joseph Cimino said Leonard approached him weeks ago to discuss the raffle and noted that other organizations have held similar events for fundraising efforts. Cimino is president of Top Gun of Maine, a …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms