GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION GROUP DELIVERS 11,000 PETITION SIGNATURES TO FEC CALLING FOR INVESTIGATION OF NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 16, 2015
MEDIA CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team, samantha@westendstrategy.com, Office: (202) 776-7700, Cell: (202) 215-9260
Washington, DC−The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence today delivered more than 11,000 petition signatures to the Federal Election Commission to call on the agency to launch an investigation into the National Rifle Association. Josh Horwitz, executive director of CSGV, delivered the signatures to Judith Ingram, press officer of the FEC.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

Full text of the petition can be found online at: http://csgv.wpengine.com/action/tell-fec-irs-investigate-nra-violations-federal-law/.

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.

“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, who led the delegation to deliver the petition signatures to FEC Commissioners in advance of their public meeting on Thursday. “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.”

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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