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Guns Down America

Type:

Advocacy Campaign
EIN:
82-2687652

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Guns Down America (also known as GunsDown, Inc.) is a left-of-center advocacy campaign that supports gun control measures and promotes corporate pressure campaigns against banks, marketing agencies, and other companies that provide services to firearms-related businesses, the National Rifle Association, and similar pro-gun-rights advocacy organizations. Guns Down America also pressures private retailers, restaurants, and other large private companies to adopt left-leaning internal policies around firearms such as prohibiting the open or concealed carry of guns in stores. The group also pressures retailers to cease their sale of firearms and operates a rapid response program to “quickly stand-up advocacy campaigns” to generate media coverage for restrictive gun control policies. 1

Background

Longtime left-wing operative Igor Volsky founded Guns Down America in August 2016 following the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida by a sympathizer of the Islamic State terrorist organization. 2 The organization was created to target the National Rifle Association with a “more aggressive” messaging campaign targeting companies that have business relationships with the NRA and gun manufacturers, such as major banks and retailers. 3

The organization was originally formed as a project of Resource Impact, a left-leaning organization that incubates left-wing social justice advocacy campaigns. The organization also works closely with the Raben Group, a lobbying firm that is headed by former Clinton administration Department of Justice official Robert Raben, who also serves as the head of Resource Impact. 3

The previous stated relationship between the Raben Group, Resource Impact and Guns Down America indicates that Raben was the key decision maker for the organization. 3 Raben operates both a for-profit company and non-profit organization that work hand in hand on left-leaning issues such as gun control. In 2018, Resource Impact, Guns Down America’s parent organization, paid the Raben Group over $240,000 in fees. 4

After being incubated under the nonprofit organization Resource Impact in 2016, Guns Down America received its own independent nonprofit status in 2018. 5

Activity

Guns Down America launched corporate pressure campaigns against the business partners of the firearms industry and the National Rifle Association. The most notable campaign from Guns Down America is a campaign to rank major banks on how supportive they are of left-leaning gun control issues. The rankings are based on factors “like a bank’s loans to and investments in gun makers; its public statements about gun safety; its support for lawmakers backed by the N.R.A.; and the discounts and deals it offers to N.R.A. members.” 6

While the organization stated that it sent the ranking to banks ahead of time, many banks contacted by the New York Times about the ranking “said that they had not been consulted and that the group had relied on arbitrary metrics.” The organization was able to pressure banks to change their banking practices to conform with left-leaning gun control policies, with Citigroup stating “that it would work only with clients that agreed to certain restrictions on firearm sales” and Bank of America affirming that “it would stop lending to companies that made military-inspired firearms for civilian use.” 6

In addition to banks, Guns Down America also had conducted a pressure campaign that ranks retailers on how restrictive their gun sales and gun control advocacy policies are. 7

Financials

In 2023, Guns Down America reported total revenue of $1,099,968. The organization recorded expenses of $667,892, resulting in a net income of $432,076. Net assets stood at $1,626,094. Notable sources of revenue included contributions amounting to $1,082,901, which accounted for 98.4 percent of total revenue.5

In 2022, New Venture Fund donated $100,000 to GunsDown Inc. New Venture Fund is a funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit, and the largest organization in the network of five nonprofits created and managed by Arabella Advisors. 8

In 2022, Kendeda Fund, a left of center private foundation which has since closed in 2023, donated $105,000 to GunsDown Inc, and $50,000 in 2023.910

In 2023, the Community Foundation of Central Missouri gave a $50,000 grant to GunsDown Inc. 11

From 2017-2024, the David Bohnett Foundation, founded by tech entrepreneur David Bohnett, donated a total of $234,492 to Guns Down America.12

People

Appointed in 2023, Hudson Munoz works as executive director of Guns Down America as of September 2025.13 Munoz previously worked as director of public relations for the Amalgamated Bank and senior strategic researcher and campaigner for the Communication Workers of America (CWA) labor union. He also was previously a researcher at the Research Beehive.14

Guns Down America was founded in 2016 by Igor Volsky, a prominent left-wing operative with ties to the Democrat Party.15 Volsky worked previously as the campaign director for Tax the Greedy Billionaires (TGB), a coalition of left-wing activist groups. Volsky was previously the executive director of Payback Campaign, a left-of-center advocacy campaign that seeks to raise taxes. He was also a healthcare reporter and managing editor at ThinkProgress, a left-wing news site operated by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. 16

Volsky also previously worked as executive director at Groundwork Action, a left-wing economic policy think tank, and as a vice president at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank with ties to the Democratic Party.16

 

 

References

  1. “About”. Guns Down America. Accessed May 30, 2020. https://gunsdownamerica.org/about/
  2. Fantz, Ashley, Faith Karimi, and Eliott C. McLaughlin. “49 Killed in Florida Nightclub Terror Attack.” CNN. Cable News Network, June 13, 2016. https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/index.html.
  3. Beckett, Louis. “’Guns are the problem’: activists get tough on gun control after Vegas”. The Guardian. October 5, 2017. Accessed May 30, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/05/we-need-fewer-guns-the-activists-who-are-rejecting-half-measures-on-firearms
  4. “IRS Form 990: Resource Impact”. ProPublica. 2018.  Accessed May 30, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/812266962/01_2020_prefixes_81-81%2F812266962_201812_990_2020011717043443
  5. Gunsdown Inc. “Nonprofit Explorer – ProPublica.” ProPublica. Accessed September 29, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/822687652.
  6. Hsu, Tiffany. “Gun Control Group’s Report Card on U.S. Banks’ Firearms Ties Has Several Fs”. The New York Times. April 4, 2019. Accessed May 30, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/business/gun-control-banks.html
  7. Ciment, Soshy. “29 stores including Walmart and Nike were graded on their gun-safety policies — and more than half of them failed”. Business Insider. December 4, 2019. Accessed May 30, 2020.  https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-gun-safety-grades-2019-12
  8. New Venture Fund. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). 2022. Schedule 1, part 2, line 401.
  9. Kendeda Fund. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). 2022. Part 14, a.

  10. Kendeda Fund. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). 2023. Part 14, a.

  11. Community Foundation of Central Missouri. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). 2023. Schedule 1, part 2, line 24.
  12. David Bohnett Foundation. “Grants: Gun Violence Prevention.” Accessed September 29, 2025. https://www.bohnettfoundation.org/grants/category/gun-violence-prevention/.
  13. Guns Down America. “Guns Down America Appoints Hudson Munoz as New Executive Director.” October 23, 2023. https://www.gunsdownamerica.org/press/guns-down-america-appoints-new-executive-director.
  14. Munoz, Hudson. LinkedIn Profile. Accessed September 29, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hudson-munoz/.

  15. Pilkington, Ed. “‘Guns are the problem’: activists get tough on gun control after Vegas.” The Guardian, October 5, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/05/we-need-fewer-guns-the-activists-who-are-rejecting-half-measures-on-firearms.

  16. Volsky, Igor. LinkedIn Profile. Accessed September 29, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/igor-volsky-239a939/.
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