Gun control activists call for probe of NRA’s political spending

Gun control advocates are calling on the Federal Election Commission investigate the National Rifle Association for what it says are millions of dollars in political expenditures that it failed to report over the last several election cycles.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence on Thursday delivered a petition signed by more than 11,000 people demanding the FEC and IRS investigate the gun lobby’s fundraising activities.

This follows a formal complaint lodged against the NRA last month by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

“The NRA should be transparent about the millions of dollars it is spending on political activities,” the petition reads.

The complaints stem from a Yahoo News report that originally alleged the NRA illegally solicited donations and failed to report $33 million in political expenditures between 2008 and 2013. That led to $600,000 is missed taxes, the media outlet concluded. 

The NRA disputed this claim, saying that it never solicitied illegal donations and paid all of the taxes the report claimed it owed. The gun lobby pointed out that Yahoo later updated the report to clarify, and called the petition a “political stunt.”

The NRA previously blamed the discrepancies on “clerical errors.”

“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.”