The state website which focuses on Washington State Fiscal Information indicates that more than $365,000 in public funding has been paid to a billionaire-backed gun control lobbying group for “grants, benefits & client services,” “goods and services,” and, in July of last year, for “personal service contracts.”
The money, according to the state website, went to the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, which has been described by attorney William Kirk—president of Washington Gun Law—in a recent video as “perhaps the most well-funded gun control group in America.”
TGM found the allocations–$263,750 during the 2021-2023 biennium and $102,102 during the current 2023-2025 biennium—while looking into a Washington Department of Commerce solicitation for proposals “to provide event planning, coordination, logistics, and reporting” for the 2025 Together We End Gun Violence (TWEGV) event. This event is slated for early June 2025, as previously reported.
According to the Commerce Department’s announcement, “The TWEGV Planning Committee includes members from COMMERCE, the King County Regional Gun Violence Prevention Office, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and others.”
When Kirk’s video was posted, reaction from gun owners was swift and totally negative. A spirited discussion occurred at the Facebook page for the 2025 Legislative Action Group.
AMMOLAND News has also been reporting on this proposal.
In his video, attorney Kirk stated, “They are using your tax dollars to disarm you.”
TGM could find no earlier indications of state funding provided to the Alliance during checks of previous biennium reports (2019-2021 and 2017-2019). TGM reached out to the Commerce Department for comment.
Also, TGM checked both bienniums and could find no similar funding allocations for the National Rifle Association or the state-based Second Amendment Foundation or Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
The Alliance for Gun Responsibility raised and spent millions of dollars in 2014 and 2018 to pass two restrictive gun control initiatives, I-594 and I-1639, respectively. In 2022, according to the Alliance’s annual report for that year, the group took in $2,258,131 and spent $2,049,564.
