Prof challenges students plan to raffle ‘assault rifle’ day before Hitler’s birthday

A professor turned to Facebook on Sunday to challenge a conservative student group’s plan to raffle an “assault rifle” this Friday, a day that happens to be the 18th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing and one day before Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

A professor is questioning a student group’s intent to raffle off a firearm on Friday, which happens to be a day before Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

”[I] applaud you on the choice of dates for your ‘Give Away of an Assault Rifle’ Banquet,” wrote Clemson University Professor John Coggeshall on a Facebook post directed at school’s Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter.

“It’s the same date as the Oklahoma City bombing [SIC] and the day before Adolph Hitler’s birthday,” he continued.

Nick James, the YAF chapter president, denied on Facebook that his club chose the date for any symbolic reasons.

“We simply selected dates which worked for our club and did not conflict with major campus events,” he said.

But in an interview with Campus Reform on Tuesday, Coggeshall continued to speculate the group picked the date for alternative reasons, saying he found it “interesting” the group would raffle off a gun on such a “symbolic date.”

Coggeshall, however, refused to make an accusation, saying again he found the coincidental timing to be “interesting.”

“I’ll let people draw their own conclusions,” he said.

On their Facebook event page, the YAF student group said their “2nd Amendment Banquet” on Friday evening will “include a drawing for a brand new Mossberg 715t ‘assault rifle’ with a 25 round magazine.”

James did note in an online op-ed the winner of the raffle will not receive the firearm during the banquet due to a state law that forbids guns on college campuses.

“The sad part about this event is that we can’t even give the winner their prize the night of the event because firearms are banned from campus by state law,” wrote Nick James at YAF.org.

“This unfair restriction of our right to bear arms is one of the reasons our club decided to host this event,” he added.

Coggeshall said he supports the state law that prohibits students from carrying firearms on the public university’s campus.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @oliverdarcy