Joyce has also given over $4 million to the Violence Policy Center, which supports an outright ban on handguns and semiautomatic assault weapons. For this, they have been maligned by the NRA, which calls them an activist foundation whose “shadowy web of huge donations” leads “straight to puppet strings that control the agenda of gun ban groups.”
On the contrary. Despite Joyce’s controversial gun control grant program (they also support programs in education, environment, employment, culture, democracy, and others throughout the Midwest) they seem to be pretty transparent. Annual and financial reports are at-the-ready. Where their funding comes from, and where it goes, is easy to trace. Though they’re undeniably out in front, and pretty far left, on this issue (and other issues) they make no bones about their liberal stance, or about how they’re perceived by other groups.
