What’s Behind 2A Group’s Allegations That Multiple Republican Candidates Took Gun Control Money?

On Saturday my colleague Tom Knighton covered the fight between the Dorr brothers’ Ohio Gun Owners and a Republican candidate who the group claims has taken money from gun control groups. 

As it turns out, Rep. Gary Click isn’t the only candidate who’s suddenly been accused of being a tool for the gun control lobby just days before voters head to the polls in Ohio’s primary. 

In a video posted to the group’s X account, Ohio Gun Owners levied a similar accusation against HD 86 candidate Ben Weber. 

🚨BREAKING: We have stripped candidate Ben Weber of his AQ gun rights rating for taking money from anti-gun lobbyists and organizations. Watch the video: pic.twitter.com/gQCLlHkZiC

— Ohio Gun Owners (@OhioGunOwners) May 1, 2026

While local media reports say Ohio Gun Owners didn’t detail which gun control organization allegedly slipped money to Click’s campaigh, OGU has named the gun control organization that’s supporting Weber’s campaign: the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police. 

It’s true that OACOP has opposed OGO-backed bills like the Second Amendment Preservation Act, but I don’t know that I’d call it a gun control group given that it’s not a single issue organization. More importantly, Weber didn’t cast a vote in support or opposition to any of the SAPA bills that Ohio Gun Owners has pushed in previous sessions, because he’s not a sitting legislator. 

OGO also downgraded Sen. Andrew Brenner from a “B-” to an “F”, alleging that the group has uncovered “unpublished reports that Andy Brenner got money from Sandy Hook Promise and their lobbyists both before and after his vote on their gun control bill HB 123,” calling it “total pay for play.” 

I can’t find any record of Sandy Hook Promise donating to any of Brenner’s campaigns, but in a comment on X in response to OGO, video, Brenner himself said that his opponent “also received money from The Success group.”

The Success Group is a government relations firm in Ohio, and it’s quite possible that it was contracted by Sandy Hook Promise in the past, though the group isn’t listed as a current client for any of the firm’s lobbyists. 

So what is (or rather, was) HB 123? Approved by the legislature in 2020, it was billed as the “Safety and Violence Education Students (SAVE Students) Act.” It’s primary focus was a requirement that schools have “evidence-based programs in suicide awareness and prevention and violence prevention.” Sandy Hook Promise’s “Say Something” program has been approved by the state, but it’s just one of eleven programs approved for use in schools.  

It’s also worth noting that HB 123 was approved by a 77-11 vote in the House and 32-0 in the Senate back in 2020, which were both controlled by Republicans at the time. I’m not sure why Sandy Hook Promise would need to engage in any pay-to-play scheme with Brenner, given that there wasn’t a single “no” vote for the legislation in the upper chamber.

While Sandy Hook Promise’s Action Fund is most definitely a gun control group that advocates for things like universal background checks and “red flag” laws, I don’t think it’s really fair to call HB 123 a gun control bill. And if Ohio Gun Owners found “unpublished reports” about Brenner getting cash from Sandy Hook Promise, why hasn’t the group published those reports on its own? It has a social media presence, after all. Why not release the documents and let gun owners see firsthand how much money Brenner and others supposedly received from the gun control group. 

I wish I had the time to go through every one of the candidates who have been the target of last minute attacks by Ohio Gun Owners, but I have other things to cover today. I will say that if I was an Ohio voter, I’d pay far more attention and give much more weight to the endorsements of a group like Buckeye Firearms Association than Ohio Gun Owners, especially after what I’ve been able to learn about OGO’s rationale for suddenly downgrading Republican lawmakers less than a week before the primary.