Chad D. Baus, the Buckeye Firearms Association’s vice chairman, has posted a great read on the BFA website: An extensive review of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence’s IRS tax records–which indicate the coalition probably never met the legal standard as a charitable organization.
Baus writes, “As the State of Ohio celebrates five successful years of concealed carry, with applications setting a record pace, it seems appropriate to take a look at where the most vocal of opponents of the law find themselves five years after the law was passed.
“The state’s predominant anti-self defense rights organization, the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence (OCAGV), operates as a tax-exempt, not-for-profit charity, or as the Internal Revenue Service refers to it, a 501(c)(3). As such, executive director Ms. Toby Hoover is required to file an IRS Form 990 each year, which becomes a public record.
“I began investigating the OCAGV’s tax records soon after Ohio’s concealed carry law took effect, and used records from 2002 and 2003 to disprove media claims that the law had been bought and paid for thanks to an overwhelming funding advantage from pro-rights organizations like Buckeye Firearms Association. My examination of those records, as well as reports from 2004 and 2005, uncovered a vast river of money flowing into Ohio from the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, and revealed that unlike the all-volunteer team at Buckeye Firearms Association, Hoover had been paying herself higher and higher annual salaries, even as she suffered legislative loss after legislative loss.
“My past investigations have uncovered evidence which supports the notion that the Joyce Foundation’s primary motivation for ‘investing’ in the OCAGV, and for looking the other way as Hoover paid a large portion of the Foundation’s most recent grant to herself, was to create the perception of a ‘phantom majority’ of Ohioans who supported gun control and opposed the restoration of self-defense rights.”
To read the rest of the piece, click here.
