For far too long, anti-gun groups have been nothing more than snake oil salesmen. They claim to speak for a vast army of grassroots citizens, but the reality is these groups are astroturf. They aren’t rooted in anything more than anti-gun animus. They’re also not nearly as down-to-earth with the people they claim to represent.
They’re a high-price, but cheap knockoff of the real thing. It’s fugazi grassroots.
NSSF has called them out in the past for their bought-and-paid-for activism and it’s time to do it again. Pull back the curtain and it’s easy to see that the antigun movement isn’t much more than a few billionaires and activist foundations pouring cash into their pet gun control projects…to the tune of over $400 million every year.
It’s also a willing media that goes right along with them, parroting half-truths and twisting narratives to demonize American gun owners and the firearm industry that serves them.
No more. Welcome Gun Rights Insights.
Gun Rights Insights is a new outreach initiative, including periodic videos, to pull back the veil that these anti-gun billionaires creep around telling America to give up their Second Amendment rights while they enjoy paid armed security. The “rules-for-thee, not-for-me” era must come to an end. That’s why NSSF’s Gun Rights Insights will be taking note of the gun control hypocrisy.
Anti-Gun Billionaire Michael Bloomberg
Take for instance, anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg. The former New York City Mayor has made it his life’s goal to eliminate Second Amendment rights across the nation, spending over $50 million to attack lawful firearm ownership. While mayor, he organized Mayors Against Illegal Guns. That group was discredited when they “honored” the terrorist and Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a “gun violence victim” in 2013. Add to that, several MAIG members have, ironically, been charged with firearms-related offenses.
Bloomberg, of course, is the financier of Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action and funds their anti-gun media mouthpiece The Trace.
The Trace was seeded with funding tied to the gun control movement. The Trace claims to be “editorially independent,” but when a newsroom is funded by and built around a single political issue with the backing of major gun control activists, it’s fair — necessary, even — to scrutinize how it frames the facts.
After all, The Trace is headed by John Feinblatt, who also heads Everytown for Gun Safety and once served as a senior advisor to Bloomberg when he was mayor. Feinblatt is the principal officer listed on tax filings for The Trace. Everytown, of course, is a gun control organization that wants to see lawful firearm ownership eliminated in America.
To top it all off, The Trace admits that it has “more than a thousand readers who have stepped up to support financially.” The Trace reported they received over $6.3 million in 2024, according to the watchdog group InfluenceWatch. That means to make its budget work, each of those readers would have had to donated over $6,300.
That’s not likely. The Trace’s own website states they make public all donors who give over $1,000 or more per year. The Trace lists over 60 donors and donating foundations that reads like a veritable “who’s who” of gun control supporters.
The Soros Family and Foreign Money
George Soros, and now his son Alex, are another source of deep pockets for anti-gun efforts. George Soros’s entities spent $9 million for lobbying efforts to attack Second Amendment rights, including fighting to allow frivolous lawsuits to clog the courts and attempt to bankrupt the firearm industry through their “legislation-through-litigation” strategy.
Soros even worked with the Gun Action on Gun Violence, which assisted in the ill-fated and frivilous $10 billion lawsuit by Mexico against U.S. firearm manufacturers.
That doesn’t even take into account the Hollywood celebrities who regularly harangue gun owners and the firearm industry. They do this while making movies and television shows featuring firearms, many times being used in irresponsible and illegal ways. And they do it while enjoying the safety of armed bodyguards.
The time is past due to expose this astroturf effort for what it is. It’s a paper-thin campaign to ostracize lawful firearm ownership, funded by wealthy elites who can afford their own armed security, but want to deny Second Amendment rights to law-abiding Americans. Poking holes into that false narrative is what Gun Rights Insights aims to do. Stay tuned.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
BREAKING: Virginia Gun Ban BLOCKED by Judge! HUGE 2A Victory [Everytown and Moms-Demand-Action along with the commie left wingers in the Virginia legislature created this bill. Its part of their incrementalism tactic]
“A judge has issued a major ruling that temporarily blocks enforcement of Virginia’s sweeping gun and magazine ban, marking a significant victory for the Second Amendment and constitutional rights. In this video, I break down what the court actually decided, why the injunction matters, what it means for gun owners across Virginia, and what happens next as the Commonwealth prepares to appeal.”
ht* tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKZAmZz5wxI
Anti-gun lie and lying study exposed: The Biggest [anti] Gun Statistic Was a LIE
ht* tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwr11YX-Xkk
Second Amendment Fans Can Start Celebrating Independence Day Early.
“As American leftists become ever more unhinged and violent, their desire to gut the Second Amendment intensifies. Democrats don’t like fair fights, so they prefer that their lawlessness not be hindered by law-abiding citizens who can defend themselves. They blather on about wanting to fight injustice and inequality, but when they gain majority power in a state the first thing they do is go after legal gun owners.
Because everything the Democrats do is fueled by hate-based emotion rather than intellect, their legal efforts to strip the Second Amendment down for parts frequently don’t fare well in the courts. On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed Second Amendment advocates a big win, which my good friend and new-ish colleague Jennifer Rust covered:
…”
ht* tps://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2026/06/26/the-morning-briefing-second-amendment-fans-can-start-celebrating-independence-day-early-n4954383
Team Newsom Tried and Failed to Convince SCOTUS There’s a Grocery Store Exception in the 2nd Amendment.
ht* tps://twitchy.com/dougp/2026/06/25/gavin-newsom-tries-and-fails-to-convince-scotus-about-the-2nd-amendments-grocery-store-exception-n2429637
The on going left wing violence, yep, this time trans again, facilitated and endorsed and funded and embraced by Giffords and Brady and Everytown and the GAVG and The Trace and their financial backers and facilitators: Homeless trans militants attack detransitioners making social media videos in Cal Anderson Park
“Law enforcement personnel who responded to the incident informed me that individuals perceived as critical of transgender ideology … are routinely targeted for severe violence in this area. [note insert: literally hundreds of such violent criminal attacks by trans every month in just this one area in one city in the country, so often its considered routine and a normally expected thing by police- but it happens all over the country every day to some degree. The LGBTQ+ movement claims of ‘all trans people are peaceful’ is a lie and always has been a lie.]
…”
ht* tps://thepostmillennial.com/homeless-trans-militants-attack-detransitioners-making-social-media-videos-in-cal-anderson-park?utm_campaign=64470
Hmm…all of them aren’t Presbyterian? Interesting.
Let’s not forget Bill Gates who financed extreme initiatives in WA.
These people are actively seeking to take away civil rights of others. If they were poor, they would use violence and be arrested. They shouldn’t get a pass just because they can afford legal and legislative assault instead.
Is there a way to sue them for conspiracy to deprive rights?
We need a loser pays law.
It’s interesting how both Soros and Bloomberg have invested in eliminating gun rights while at the same time installing far left prosecutors to release a wave of black criminals back onto the streets. The obvious indication is they hate and wish violence on middle class whites.
Indeed! We need to stop saying these particular billionaires and the Democrats they enable are “soft on crime”. They inflict crime on the middle class with glee!
Soros, Bloomberg, et al. are playing both sides against the middle. Therefore the thug released is of no importance should they be killed or re-incarcerated, nor is the conservative good citizen. In their mind it is a win/win. Until they start paying the price with their blood will they see the light and change their uncommon sense actions.
Bloomberg’s has personal and family who are all ex NYPD armed bodyguards. these bodyguards even travel to foreign countries (in advance of Bloomberg visits) to coordinate with National and local Police security for his visits. All his properties are protected by armed guards.
Yet He doesn’t want you to be armed to protect yourself and family. He also hasn’t called for higher jail sentences for criminal’s who commit violent crime with illegal guns or just to be in possession of illegal guns. The above is the differnition of a Liberal Hypocrite.
These ‘funders’ all seem to have something in (((common))).
Every time, every damn time.