RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — In his quest to secure votes and raise money ahead of being on the ballot for North Carolina’s next governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is hosting an event that’s turning heads.

On Sunday, Robinson’s fundraiser will include a VIP cocktail hour, dinner, donor photo-ops with him, and even a raffle. That raffle will put three guns up for grabs, including an AR-15 rifle and two Glock handguns.

  • A Black Rain Ordnance AR15 5.56mm
  • A Black Rain Ordnance AR15 5.56mm

The guns feature phrases such as “LET IT RAIN!” and “I AM THE MAJORITY!” The AR-15 has an estimated value of $1,550 while the Glocks are worth approximately $530 each.

Ticket prices for the raffle begin at $50 each and go up to 55 tickets for $1,500. Ticket levels for the dinner and other aspects of the event range from $300 for a couple and $5,000 for the VIP experience for a group of 8.

As the gun raffle and fundraiser are underway Sunday at the River Wild restaurant in Mt. Gilead, a very different event will be unfolding in downtown Raleigh.

From 2-4:30 p.m. on the Halifax Mall off of N. Salisbury Street, multiple organizations are joining forces to rally against gun violence. The rally is being called “PEOPLE > GUNS.”

The event is following the fatal shooting of a UNC professor in late August and another armed person on campus that caused a campus lockdown on Wednesday. Cosponsors of the event include Young Democrats of North Carolina, the College Democrats of North Carolina, the North Carolina Association of Teen Democrats, the UNC Young Democrats, the NC State Democrats, and March for Our Lives UNC.

A simple, two-word instruction on the event’s page says “Bring signs.” Another statement on the rally’s information page reads, “If you’re not a young person, help us show that young people are not alone in the fight against school shootings by coming to support.”

Students gather on UNC’s campus to publicly take a stand against gun violence and to discuss the Aug. 28 fatal shooting on campus. (CBS 17 file image)

According to organizers, the event is about speaking truth to power and sending a message that “our generation will not sit idly by as gun violence continues to plague our country.”

Speakers at the event will include U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-13), N.C. House Rep. Maria Morey (D-30), N.C. Sen. Natalie Murdock (D-20) as well as a Durham County commissioner, the chair of the NC Democratic Party and Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones. Jones is well-known for his expulsion in April 2023 on the grounds of “breaking decorum” for participating in a gun control protest on the state’s House floor.