BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is calling for an IRS investigation into a startling allegation made by former NRA President and Second Amendment champion Marion Hammer in a federal lawsuit in which she says an attorney representing the Brady gun control group allegedly offered her $5 million to “retire and cease advancing the interests of the NRA and defending the Second Amendment.”
The allegation says the offer was made in 2018. According to language in the lawsuit, Hammer immediately reported the offer to then-Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
“This is not the kind of offer a tax exempt organization should be making under any circumstances,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “First and foremost, nobody’s First Amendment rights should ever be for sale, and secondly, the nature of this allegation almost appears as though the gun control group was offering Mrs. Hammer a bribe to walk away from an issue to which she had dedicated most of her adult life.”
Hammer’s legal action involves an apparent contract dispute between her and the NRA.
“We have absolutely no interest in, nor are we taking any position on, Mrs. Hammer’s lawsuit,” Gottlieb stated. “Our sole interest is in this apparent attempt by a wealthy gun prohibition lobbying organization to essentially silence one of the nation’s most respected and effective voices in support of Second Amendment rights.
“I am sure,” he observed, “that when the Brady Center applied for tax exempt status, this is not an activity they listed on their application, as I doubt it would qualify as a tax exempt function.
“A claim of this nature, especially in a federal lawsuit, absolutely deserves some investigation,” Gottlieb said. “While it appears no money ever exchanged hands, the idea such an offer was even made raises serious questions about what the gun control lobby does with its money, and whether this sort of thing is acceptable under tax exempt guidelines.”