Tucson Republicans raffling Glock handgun

TUCSON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A Tucson-area Republican group is giving supporters a chance to win a Glock 23, the type used in the killing spree aimed at Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The Pima County Republican Party plans to sell 125 $10 tickets for the drawing, The Huffington Post reported. The gun comes with three 12-round magazines.

Six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, were killed and 13 others wounded at a Giffords meet-and-greet outside a Tucson supermarket in January. The alleged gunman, Jared Loughner, has been found unfit to stand trial for now and is being held in a federal prison hospital.

Giffords was shot in the head and has been in rehab for months. She appeared in the House on Aug. 1 for the first time since the shooting to vote for a deficit reduction compromise.

At least one Tucson Republican leader has denounced the gun raffle.

"There's a woman who has a bullet in the brain and who everybody is wishing a full recovery," Brian Miller, the immediate past chairman of the Pima County Republicans, told Talking Points Memo. "I don't think that raffling off a firearm right now is probably the right way to go."