A Denial of Service web attack took down the Ohio-based Buckeye Firearms Association website on Wednesday after the association sent George Zimmerman a check to purchase a new firearm.

Director of Marketing and Communications Dean Rieck sent out an email statement Wednesday afternoon, saying the overwhelming attack took out both Buckeye Firearms Association and Buckeye Firearms Foundation’s websites.

“Our IT guy says it’s a ‘denial of service’ or DoS attack. This is not the ordinary ‘hack’ attack that we’ve experienced many times in the past,” Rieck said. “A DoS attack involves using significant resources to bombard a server to temporarily or permanently disrupt service.”

According to Rieck, the damage was so extensive, it cut off cell phone service and shut down the company hosting the association’s website.

“Our email communication services also went down. Leaders are located all over the state of Ohio, so we’ve had to set up a temporary alternate email list to stay in touch as we work through this issue,” Rieck said. “This attack was so overwhelming, it took down the entire company that hosts our website. Thousands of IP addresses have been caught up in the digital bloodshed. Shortly after all the company servers went down, their power went down. And our IT guy says his cell phone service vanished.”

In a Facebook post, the association also said the attack shut down power in the building.

A Denial of Service attack is usually an artificial call for content resulting in an overwhelming amount of server requests. It is designed to disable the targeted servers or cripple the servers so that content is delivered so slowly it makes the website unusable.

Rieck suspected that the attack was spurred by the association’s recent fundraiser on Zimmerman’s behalf.

“We don’t yet know where this attack came from, but we find it hard to believe that it is a coincidence that it’s happening at the very moment a story went national about raising funds to enable George Zimmerman to purchase a new firearm after Eric Holder and the DOJ decided to prevent him from getting his personal property back,” he said.

The organization started raising funds to purchase a gun for George Zimmerman after he was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. A hold was placed on trial evidence, which prevented the return of Zimmerman’s gun and prompted the association to begin its fundraising effort on July 19.

The association has sent a check to George Zimmerman to purchase a new firearm.