Top Gun-Control Group Will Spend $1.25 Million in Colorado After Affiliate Received PPP Loan

One of the country's leading gun-control groups received up to $350,000 from taxpayers to deal with the fallout from coronavirus, but that has not affected its political arm's plans to spend millions on the 2020 election.

Giffords PAC, one of the largest gun-control political action committees in the country, told Colorado Politics that it would spend $1.25 million on television ads to support Democrat John Hickenlooper's  2020 Colorado Senate campaign. The announcement came just two months after the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence took a Paycheck Protection Program loan worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in order to meet payroll for 16 employees, according to the Small Business Administration.

Congress established PPP loans in March to provide relief to small businesses affected by coronavirus shutdowns, but the taxpayer-backed loans may have been used to support the salaries of workers spearheading Giffords PAC's multimillion-dollar campaign operations. A Washington Free Beacon review of financial disclosures found money has moved between the PAC, Law Center, and a Washington, D.C.-based social welfare arm called Giffords. The PAC has paid Giffords more than $845,000 since March 2019 for everything from staffing costs to rentals. Giffords and the Law Center share staff, according to federal disclosures.

Neither the Giffords PAC nor the Law Center responded to a request for comment.