Billionaire Bloomberg’s ‘The Trace’ Unironically Argues Wealthy 2A Supporters are Dangerous

An article this week at The Trace complains about $10 million that was paid to one firm (the Constitutional Defense Fund) and a couple of gun rights orgs in recent years to support court challenges to gun control laws. CDF is far from the only firm working in this field, and there are dozens more gun rights groups than those mentioned in this article. But somehow, one large benefactor funding this pro-2A work means that “It’s about as far from a bottom-up, grassroots operation as possible” (in the words of Giffords’ chief counsel).

Cool. Cool. So how about we put the shoe on the other foot for a second. In 2019 alone, Michael Bloomberg (net worth: $104 billion) gave $38 million to Everytown for Gun Safety. Back in 2014 when the gun control advocacy operation was formed, he donated $36 million. I taken the time to look up the amounts he’s pumped into Everytown in other years, but even with just those two years alone, Bloomberg has already dwarfed the supposedly scandalous $10 million that The Trace article is pearl-clutches over.

It’s especially ironic that The Trace is running this exposee, as they too exist solely because of Michael Bloomberg’s largesse. Their filed Form 990s show Everytown has continued to fund them after that, including another $3.1 million in 2016. In fact Bloomberg’s gun control impresario, John Feinblatt is president of Trace Media and — surprise! — also the president of Everytown.

The president of your organization is literally the president of Everytown https://t.co/hGizzKftCp pic.twitter.com/py1QRiMUZX

— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) July 26, 2023

And that’s just fine. The Trace is actually pretty good about transparency. They don’t try to hide any of this. But it’s just a little odd that a publication that’s owned and financed by one of the world’s richest men is unironically complaining about far smaller financiers funding legal action to protect the right to keep and bear arms.

It seems that, in publishing this “shocking” report, The Trace is somehow trying to pressure gun rights supporters into unilaterally disarming and disavowing the participation of wealthy financiers…all while they have their very own billionaire who’s been running a multi-year effort to try to buy influence, elected offices, and even the presidency…all for the purpose of taking our rights away.