For gun-control groups, the NRA is nothing but a void of evil. Everything they do is tainted and vile, even if the groups like Giffords do the exact same thing. After all, think about how anyone the NRA donates money to is bought and paid for, but people who they donate to are champions of all that is good and right in the world.

It’s rather pathetic, really.

However, Giffords has decided to step up its game by taking things to a whole new level.

The gun control group Giffords filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Tuesday, alleging the advocacy group violated campaign finance laws by illegally contributing tens of millions of dollars to GOP Senate and presidential candidates.

The lawsuit — which was filed by the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog Campaign Legal Center on behalf of Giffords — alleges that the NRA funneled up to $35 million in illicit contributions to GOP candidates through a number of shell corporations.

The group, which was founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), alleges that the NRA made illegal contributions to candidates running in elections in 2014, 2016 and 2018, in addition to former President Trump’s 2016 bid.

“Over the past seven years, the National Rifle Association has engaged in an ongoing scheme to evade campaign finance regulations by using a series of shell corporations to illegally but surreptitiously coordinate advertising with at least seven candidates for federal office,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit is specifically alleging that the consulting firm hired by the NRA to create its ads, called Starboard, was “functionally indistinguishable” from the consulting firm OnMessage, which was brought on to work for the campaigns of now-Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.).

Giffords named a number of other campaigns in the lawsuit: Sen. Thom Tillis’ (R-N.C.) 2014 campaign, Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) 2014 campaign, former Sen. Cory Gardner’s (R-Colo.) 2014 campaign, Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wisc.) 2016 campaign and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The Hill has reached out to the lawmakers or campaigns named in the lawsuit for comment.

The complaint said the two groups have the same leadership, are located at the same address and have no internal separation or firewall between employees who work at the two entities.

Now, this is interesting.

Why? Because we just saw New York Attorney General Letitia James jump at everything she could think of to justify shutting down the NRA permanently and she and her entire staff didn’t seem to note any of this.

It should also be noted that in recent years, Giffords and her fellow gun control groups outspent the NRA by a significant margin. Plus, the House flipped in 2018 and remained flipped in 2020, though just barely. If the NRA was doing something so nefarious and evil, it clearly didn’t work.

As such, I’m calling BS on this.

Of course, I’m clearly biased against groups like Giffords, and I’ll own up to that in this case. I’m sure there may be something that doesn’t look particularly kosher, but I seriously doubt it’s what Giffords claims.

I reached out to the NRA to get their take on this. Here’s the organization’s statement:

“Another premeditated abuse of the public by our adversaries — who will stop at nothing in their pursuit of their anti-freedom agenda. This latest action is as misguided as it is transparent. Suffice it to say, the NRA has full confidence in its political activities and remains eager to set the record straight.”

Honestly, I can’t disagree, either.

Giffords can feel that they’re not winning the hearts and minds of the American public. After all, despite their best efforts, more and more Americans are buying their first firearm. Those Americans are far more likely to become pro-Second Amendment voters, and Giffords moment is passing them by, so they’re desperate to do something.

This is what they came up with. It’s kind of sad, really.