BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today said the recent revelation that the anti-gun-rights Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence took a federal Paycheck Protection Loan worth up to $1 million, while working to keep gun stores closed is an “outrageous exploitation of the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights.”
The Brady group reported received between $350,000 and $1 million on April 10. Likewise, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reportedly accepted a loan worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in April, to meet payroll for 16 employees.
“SAF had to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from contributors to file lawsuits during the coronavirus shutdowns to keep gun stores open as essential businesses so Americans could exercise their Second Amendment rights,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb is also chairman of SAF’s sister organization, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, a grassroots political activism organization. That organization also had to raise funds from generous donors to continue its efforts to protect, rather than erode, the rights of American citizens.
“We didn’t take a penny of taxpayer money, nor did we even apply, because that simply would not have been appropriate,” he stated.
“On the other hand,” he added, “the Brady and Gifford groups fought to keep gun stores closed while taking taxpayer funds to stop people from being able to buy firearms and ammunition to protect themselves and their property from violence including rioters, looters and arsonists.”
“More appalling is the fact that, according to their latest tax returns, the Brady and Gifford organizations have several millions of dollars in assets,” Gottlieb noted. “They did not need any taxpayer money to keep their doors open.”
“This is yet another fraud committed by the gun prohibition lobby against the American people,” he said.