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GOP donor to withold money to Republicans until they support gun control

By Ray Downs
Signs are displayed at the Parkland amphitheater school memorial to remember the 17 shooting victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Sunday in Parkland, Florida. Florida-based Republican donor Al Hoffman, Jr. said on Saturday that he will withhold donations to Republican lawmakers until they support gun control reform. Photo by Gary Rothstein/UPI
Signs are displayed at the Parkland amphitheater school memorial to remember the 17 shooting victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Sunday in Parkland, Florida. Florida-based Republican donor Al Hoffman, Jr. said on Saturday that he will withhold donations to Republican lawmakers until they support gun control reform. Photo by Gary Rothstein/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A prominent donor of the Republican Party said Saturday he will no give money to lawmakers who don't support a ban on military-style firearms.

Al Hoffman, Jr., a Florida-based real estate developer and former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee who donated $1 million to Jeb Bush during the 2016 Republican primary, wrote an email to Republican leaders telling of his ultimatum.

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"I will not write another check unless they all support a ban on assault weapons," Hoffman wrote. "Enough is enough!"

In an interview with The New York Times, Hoffman, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Portugal between 2005 and 2007 after raising millions for then-President George W. Bush's presidential campaigns, said there have been too many mass shootings not to enforce a ban.

"For how many years now have we been doing this -- having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings -- and how many years has it been that nothing's been done?" Hoffman said. "It's the end of the road for me."

Hoffman resides in Palm Beach, Fla., located just a few miles away from last week's school shooting in Parkland, Fla. where 17 people were killed.

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"When the tragedy occurred, I heard it instantly on the television and I felt my heart just drop," Hoffman told CNN. "I felt I was holding my heart in my hands. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that what I had been doing, which was hounding elected officials to vote for better gun law control, was not going to happen. So I felt I had to do it on my own."

Hoffman said he heard back from a few Republican leaders he emailed and that "they are endorsing the concept totally."

"And I'm still waiting to hear back from the others. But I believe we can start a movement of consensus here and be successful in achieving our objective," he said.

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