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September 2, 2025
Antigun Activists Masquerading as Journalists Let the Mask Slip
Don’t be fooled. Antigun activists posing as “journalists” are letting the mask slip and revealing themselves for what they really are. They are paid shills for a total disarmament movement bent on erasing Second Amendment rights altogether.
Take, for instance, Mike Spies. Spies is a writer for The Trace. That’s the propaganda gun control mouthpiece for antigun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. They’ve been exposed before. It’s no secret that The Trace isn’t “journalism.” At best, it’s advocacy. It pushes a gun control narrative.
What might not be so clear to some is that The Trace, and Spies, partner with several news outlets to push that message to a broader audience. The latest is Rolling Stone. There are others. The Trace boasts about partnerships with 300 national and local media organizations. Those range from The Atlantic, Newsweek, USA Today and Politico to local news outlets including WBUR and WHYY.
Bias Check
Spies recently joined MSNBC’s Katy Tur where he said, “You have to be honest, and say what will actually work, which is what nobody wants to hear, which is that there are just simply way too many firearms, and they are way too accessible.”
He added, “And they’re too powerful, even handguns too, again, that’s why in Australia … It doesn’t matter if it’s not politically acceptable to say it. I’m not here as a politician or anyone who works in politics. I’m a journalist. Whether or not you like it, the only thing that really works, if you really wanted to bring down gun violence, was to do what Australia did and to do what many other countries in Europe do.”
Spies predicted he would get “threatening blowback” for making his claim. That’s not what he’s getting. He’s being exposed for the gun control activist he is.
In fairness, NSSF has received multiple requests from Spies for comment on several pieces he’s published. He’s always been polite and professional. And NSSF has always politely declined his invitation. Simply, NSSF won’t dignify the masquerade that The Trace – or its writers – is legitimate news. They aren’t. It is – at best – activism. At worst – it is an outlet determined to destroy the God-given rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. They are carrying the water for Bloomberg’s antigun crusade.
The Trace bills itself as “an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom.” Their independence is hardly true. Guns America Digest dug into their tax records in 2020 that show 70 percent of their funding comes from Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control group that’s bankrolled by antigun billionaire Michael Bloomberg. In fact, John Feinblatt – the same Feinblatt that heads Everytown for Gun Safety and once served as a senior advisor to Bloomberg when the billionaire was New York City’s mayor – is the principal officer listed on tax filings for The Trace.
Minimizing Gun Owners, Rights
Spies let the mask slip. He wasn’t “reporting” the news. He was advancing a gun control narrative. He quickly agreed to Tur’s minimization of gun owners in America, when she posed that “the majority of Americans don’t own guns.”
That’s an attempt to minimize gun owners. By saying, and Spies agreeing, that gun owners are a minority of the American population, he is also agreeing that the right to keep and bear arms is minimized to what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas warns would be viewed as a “second-class right.” The right to keep and bear arms exists for all Americans to exercise at their choosing. The 2024 presidential election saw 144 million people vote. That’s 65.3 percent of the registered voting public, but only 44 percent of the American population. No one in their right mind would argue that the right to vote should be eliminated because only a minority of Americans chose to exercise that right. But that’s what Spies and Tur argued should be considered when it comes to Second Amendment rights.
There are an estimated 491.3 million firearms in civilian possession as of 2022. There is no federal firearm registry in America. That’s against the law. Lawful firearm ownership is estimated by polling and by tracking the number of FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verifications that have been conducted.
Pew Research estimates that 32 percent of Americans surveyed professed to owning at least one firearm, with 40 percent of adults surveyed saying they live in a household with a gun. Those figures don’t take into account those Americans who self-select out of those surveys because they don’t want to be identified as a gun owner for privacy or security reasons.
NSSF data showed that since 2020, over 26.2 million people – more than the population of Florida – have become new gun owners. The fact is, gun ownership is growing and is more representative of America because more and more Americans from all walks of life are becoming gun owners. The fastest growth of gun ownership has been seen among African American women.
Spies, however, let the truth spill out. For all the claims of wanting “common sense” gun control, the fact is that he, Everytown and The Trace don’t want that. They want gun ownership eradicated in America. They want the elimination of the Second Amendment.
There are things Spies has said that should be believed. When he says he wants bans on all guns – including handguns – believe him. That’s what he wants. That’s the narrative he is driving. However, when he says he’s an unbiased “journalist,” nothing could be further from the truth. His words reveal what he really is.
Spies is a gun control advocate masquerading as a journalist.
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Update: Make That 26.2 Million New First-Time Gun Owners Since 2020
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