Grasping at Straws: Report Spins 6-Year-Old
NSSF Study to Push 'Gun Control'

A new report at The Trace—the pro-gun-control publication backed by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg—is using, and essentially misrepresenting, a six-year-old study on messaging, done for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, to suggest American gun owners "could be persuaded by the value of reforms that are vigorously opposed by the gun industry, gun rights groups, and Republican lawmakers."

The NSSF study, conducted in 2019 for the firearms industry trade association by Responsive Management of Harrisonburg, Virginia, was done so that NSSF members, from industry chiefs to local retailers, "to provide information that they need to be successful in their communities," according to NSSF Public Affairs Director Mark Oliva.

The study was obtained by The Trace, which is apparently doing a series of articles, to contend so-called "gun reforms" might be embraced by U.S. gun owners. These reforms "include universal background checks, red flag laws, and even a gun registry," The Trace says.

The Trace is considered by critics to be a Bloomberg-financed "propaganda newsroom" to promote gun control. That The Trace has sometimes published stories "in partnership" with other publications, such as the New Yorker and New York Times, has alarmed critics who suggest this underscores misgivings about the media's anti-gun bias.

Oliva, in an interview with TGM, says The Trace article—done in partnership with Rolling Stone—"is grasping at straws…There's no 'there' there." …