If you see anything on HOTR with a fund raiser, or to purchase a product for a fund raiser, it's for someone I would personally vouch for, with a need that is legitimate.
Still, only one or two will be on this blog a year, as many needs as there are. This is one of them, not so much that you can win this firearm, because frankly, it's important.
Photo by Jonathan Palmer
". . . on Saturday, May 25, 2013 one of our local officers was shot and killed in the line of duty. Officer Jason Ellis was seven year veteran and K9 officer for the Bardstown Police Dept.Officer Jason Ellis was not only a patron and friend of KYGUNCO, but also responded to most of KYGUNCO's late night alarm calls. Officer Ellis was an outgoing officer in our community, and was an active coach in local youth sports. Ellis is the first Bardstown police officer shot and killed in the line of duty in the department's history. Officer Jason Ellis leaves behind a wife and two young sons."
Officer Ellis was killed in what may well have been an ambush, on his way home, his dog not with him, the criminal(s) that took his life still out there. As the community's only K-9 officer searching for drugs, he played a pivotal role in cleaning up the streets of their community from that scourge.
There was no standing room at his funeral, officers coming from several states away. Many K-9 officers attended the funeral, and their dogs could be heard barking from their cruisers before the funeral. "It's our duty to come pay our respects," said Darrell Jones, a K-9 officer with the Lexington police.
Kentucky Gun Company is donating a fine firearm in a raffle (link at the bottom of the post), 100% of the funds raised going to the family of this fallen officer.
But there will be someone that says, a gun giveaway for someone that was killed by a gun?
Like most of you, I'm of a group that recognize that a gun is simply a tool, an object, with no capability of harm in and of itself. As blindness is colorless, the firearm itself is harmless, it is only the man that holds it that has the capacity to make it good or evil. Some use it as such, to take or destroy, others rise up out of their passivity and use it to protect themselves, and their community, often at great cost to themselves.
I think it is a fitting object of history to raffle and one that I will support, not simply because I'm the child of law enforcement officers, civilian and military. It's because it sends a message to the families of those who look past systems that are often flawed, laws we shake our heads at, even as we uphold them, as they continue to protect and serve the community, doing what they can, with all that they are, carrying that badge with pride, even into death.
$5 won't bring Officer Ellis back, it won't heal an open wound in his young family, it won't solve crime. It will, however, lessen one burden of a young widow in a time in her life she needs to be strong for her boys. K-9 Officer Figo has been retired and will go live with Amy Ellis and sons Parker and Hunter, ages six and seven, but she will need more than that. She and those boys will need the continued support of the law abiding community.
Link for the raffle of a Deluxe Henry Golden Boy for the family of Officer Jason Ellis is here.
An authentic Henry Golden Boy is a firearm any one of us would be proud to display. Each rifle in this limited-edition series is adorned with a classic Golden Boy receiver festooned with intricate, deeply etched elegant patterns inspired by the elaborate floral scroll works of acclaimed 19th century engraver Louis D. Nimschke. The etchings,tastefully complement the rich grain and natural highlights of the select American walnut stock and forearm.
It's just $5. Donate if you can, link if you can. But don't do it for the rifle. Do it for what is right.
Brigid
