Abbott cancels campaign’s gun giveaway.

Governor withdraws shotgun prize offered in campaign contest after criticism grows

— Facing a national backlash, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday canceled a shotgun giveaway contest being held by his re-election campaign after a gunman killed 10 people and injured 13 others at a high school southeast of Houston.

A spokesman for Abbott said the campaign contest is continuing, but instead of the $250 gift certificate redeemable for a Texas-made shotgun at a licensed gun dealer in Central Texas, the winner will receive a $250 gift card good for anything.

The campaign website promoting the contest was launched May 1, more than two weeks before the Friday massacre occurred at Santa Fe High School. It initially featured a photo of Abbott aiming a shotgun, but the photo was removed Monday.

In Friday’s attack, the 17-yearAUSTIN old gunman used a Remington 870 shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol, authorities said.

Abbott’s giveaway drew controversy over the weekend after door hangers promoting it were distributed in western Travis County as part of door-to-door campaigning by the governor’s supporters. Gun control advocates also viewed the promotion on Abbott’s campaign website. Critics quickly lit up social media, and the giveaway became a talking point on cable news shows and radio.

For years, Texas politicians from the governor to county commissioners have raffled shotguns and hunting rifles to raise money for and promote their campaigns. It’s not unusual for fraternal groups, even churches, to raise money by raffling firearms in some areas of West Texas, where hunters sometimes head to bird and deer blinds for days.

In fact, Abbott has raffled shotguns before, most recently in October 2015, in his first year as governor.

While various advocacy groups and Democrats said Abbott was insensitive for not canceling the latest giveaway sooner, groups outside Texas gnaw-

ed away at Abbott for giving away a firearm in the first place — even in a staunch Second Amendment-supporting state like Texas.

The Austin chapter of March for Our Lives — the gun control movement started by students in Parkland, Fla., after a school shooting there — blasted Abbott on Twitter. “To put it bluntly, we find this a disgusting display of the disregard of the toll gun violence takes and an absolute failure to respect your constituents in the wake of the #SantaFe shootings,” the group said in a tweet.

The governor on Sunday attended a church service in Santa Fe for the victims of Friday’s shooting. By later that day, the giveaway had become an issue in the Democratic gubernatorial runoff.

Andrew White, who faces Lupe Valdez in the Democratic gubernatorial runoff Tuesday, posted a picture on Twitter of an Abbott campaign door hanger advertising the giveaway.

“If nominated on May 22, I won’t have to give away shotguns to get people to vote for me. Can you believe this?” White wrote.

Matthew Hogenmiller, head event organizer for March for Our Lives ATX, said Monday that Abbott was right in dropping the contest.

“We are happy that the governor has canceled his shotgun giveaway,” the group said in a statement. “It is our understanding that the money that would have gone to the shotgun, will instead be distributed in the form of a gift card. However, we continue to plead that the money given to the winner is instead donated to the survivors’ funds in Santa Fe.”