GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION GROUP TO DELIVER 10,000 PETITION SIGNATURES TO FEC CALLING FOR INVESTIGATION OF NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2015
MEDIA CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team, samantha@westendstrategy.com, Office: (202) 776-7700, Cell: (202) 215-9260
Washington, DC−On Thursday, July 16, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence will deliver more than 10,000 petition signatures to the Federal Election Commission in downtown Washington to call on the agency to launch an investigation into the National Rifle Association.

CSGV’s petition campaign was spurred by a Yahoo News investigation into the NRA’s fundraising activities, which appeared to uncover the following specific violations of federal law:

  • Soliciting donations for the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF), its PAC, for electoral purposes without disclosing that fact to potential donors
  • Soliciting donations for the NRA-PVF from the general public, even though the NRA is barred from doing so as a member organization
  • Failing to post multiple disclaimers required by federal law when fundraising for the NRA-PVF
  • Failing to report more than $33 million in political expenditures between 2008 and 2013; had it done so, according to the Yahoo News report, the NRA would have owed more than $600,000 in taxes to the federal government

The NRA attempted to explain these irregularities away as “coding” and “clerical” errors. As Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) noted when it called on the FEC and Internal Revenue Service to scrutinize the NRA, “The idea that the NRA, one of the most sophisticated and influential advocacy organizations in the country, doesn’t know how to fill out a simple tax return just does not ring true.”

CSGV Executive Director Josh Horwitz will lead a delegation to deliver the petition signatures to FEC Commissioners at their public meeting on Thursday. Details on the delivery follow:

What: Petition delivery to FEC public meeting

Who: A delegation of CSGV staff, gun violence prevention advocates and concerned citizens led by CSGV Executive Director Josh Horwitz

When: Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 10 a.m.

Where: 999 E St NW, Suite 910, Washington, DC 20463 (Metro Stop: Metro Center)

“The NRA is going to have to do better than ‘The dog ate my homework,’” said Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “No one is above the rule of law, including Wayne LaPierre and the NRA leadership. We have election and tax laws in place to ensure the integrity of our electoral process, and we urge the FEC to take a closer look into the NRA’s activities.”

Also on Thursday, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence staff will privately deliver the petition signatures to the IRS, calling on it to investigate potential violations as well.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) seeks to secure freedom from gun violence through research, strategic engagement and effective policy advocacy. CSGV can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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