Shortly after the 2020 election, a super PAC formed in Tampa called the Gun Owners Action Fund.

On Jan. 6, 2021 — a day that would come to be associated with the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol — a Georgia-based gun manufacturer, Daniel Defense, contributed $100,000 to the super PAC.

Last month, Daniel Defense came under a spotlight when one of its rifles was used in the massacre of 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex. The company pulled out of a planned appearance at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention. The House Oversight Committee launched an investigation. And a trail of political donations from Daniel Defense’s owners illustrated the financial clout of the gun industry, even as NRA spending has declined in recent years.

Now a complaint from the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group, alleges Daniel Defense violated federal law when it gave the money to the Gun Owners Action Fund because federal contractors are barred from making contributions to federal candidates or committees.

Representatives of Daniel Defense did not respond to a request for comment. But a treasurer for the Gun Owners Action Fund, Nancy H. Watkins, said in an email that the PAC had refunded the $100,000 contribution in May at the request of Daniel Defense.

Daniel Defense had multiple active federal contracts at the time of last year’s donation, according to a federal contracting database. They included contracts for weapons and replacement parts, among other products, with the Defense Department, the State Department and the Justice Department.

“Allowing federal contractors like Daniel Defense to make political contributions would risk creating a ‘pay to play’ culture of political corruption, in which companies benefiting from taxpayer-funded federal contracts receive favored treatment in exchange for their political contributions,” argues the complaint, filed last week with the Federal Election Commission.