Astroturfing

Earlier in the day, Carl from Chicago alerted me to an NPR interview that was going on with Paul Helmke, Robert Levy, and some unknown person being touted as a gun rights blogger. Noting that it looks like her blog was just getting started, that immediately raised suspicion that something wasn’t going to pass the smell test. How did they pick out some unknown blogger who is just getting started while ignoring the whole of us? The answer, would obviously be this person is not an unknown blogger, but a false flag; someone flying under the banner of being pro-Second Amendment while in truth being no such thing. Google shows the truth:

So it would seem that Tracee Larson is previously associated with the false flag operation American Hunters and Shooters Association. This woman has no credibility as a pro-gun spokesman, and it’s quite likely the NPR interviewers are aware of that. It’s also likely that perhaps Helmke either got to pick his opponents here, or it was arranged to be  softball interview. What better people to use on the pro-gun side than Bob Levy, who endorses magazine restrictions, and Tracee Larson, who is an AHSA shill flying a false flag.

All so Paul could get away with saying police don’t use magazines that hold more than 10 rounds (which begs the question of why the ban exempt law enforcement), and conveniently gloss over the fact that this bill would ban large number of guns, both modern and antique. Levy doesn’t really know the issue, and the other woman is a shill for the anti-gunners. Great job NPR! I hope Congress defunds you shortly.

UPDATE: Paul also notes that the magazines banned by the 1994 AWB were as rare as hens teeth in 2004, before the ban expired. This is a complete and utter fabrication, as anyone here can tell you.

30 thoughts on “Astroturfing”

  1. All so Paul could get away with saying police don’t use magazines that hold more than 10 rounds

    Patently false. Police routinely use “large capacity” magazines, and do so for exactly the same reasons a non-LEO gun owner might want to do so – to prepare for the extreme emergency, no matter how unlikely. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, as they say.

    And I’m not remotely surprised that NPR would throw in a shill under the label of a “pro-gun” organization. That’s the agenda – to label anyone who opposes such a ban as a “radical extremist” or “gun loon.” After all, the “mainstream” gun owners can accept and understand such “common sense” limitations, right? You really didn’t expect actual honesty, didn’t you?

  2. NPR does actually issue corrections from time to time. At minimum it will be embarrasing to them if they start getting letters about shills for guests. Suggest sending them a polite email letting them know about the problem.

    Its possible they were duped by Helmke/McCarthy.

  3. “All so Paul could get away with saying police don’t use magazines that hold more than 10 rounds ”

    He really said that? Somebody should forward it to the various cop orgs for comment.

  4. The On Point host has never met a gun controller he didn’t like. He has invited the same balance of “experts” for past gun control shows. He’s basically destroyed my enjoyment of his radio station.

  5. From the comments section over there:
    “There are now bullets that explode once they’ve struck, making them cause vastly more damage in the body. I remembered this when we heard the bullet that hit Giffords when through and out the other side. It seems it didn’t explode (or maybe it wouldn’t have gone through). I’m not a gun owner. But it seems that this sort of ammunition should be regulated as well.”

    Wow.

  6. A quick glance at Larson’s blog also reveals typical sloppiness, like using ‘clip’ for magazine, and ‘chamber’ for cylinder. She also claims that she started the blog in 2009 and hasn’t posted in a long time, but there is no archived content.

  7. “Paul also notes that the magazines banned by the 1994 AWB were as rare as hens teeth in 2004, before the ban expired. This is a complete and utter fabrication, as anyone here can tell you.”

    Yeah. I bought all of my 30 round AR-15 mags during the ban at around 30 or 40 bucks a pop. Which isn’t that much more than some of them cost today. My AUG magazines cost more.

    You could buy pre-ban mags all day long on AR15.com’s EE. FAL and G3 mags were still at like $5 a mag by the crate, IIRC. AK mags were cheap too.

  8. Of interest, NPR reached out to Gun Nuts and a couple of other gun blogs to see if we knew of any gun owners that would support the ban. My response was “good luck finding one of those”. If I’d have been smart, I would have sandbagged and gotten myself in the interview only to say “pysche!”

    Oh well, I’m not really surprised they’d just lie about stuff.

  9. I recommend getting this information to the relevant House committee members, in detail. CPB funding and all….

  10. @Caleb — Can you substantiate that claim? I would love to see an email/letter/whatever from NPR asking gun blogs where they can find gun owners who support the ban. Talk about a smoking gun!

  11. I saw other gun blogs report on NPR asking them the same thing. I don’t doubt it for a second.

  12. I went to her website. My favorite part is how one post starts out “I initially started this blog back in the summer of 2009 when…”, yet the earliest post in her archive is from January 8th, 2011!!!

    LOL. Are they even really trying?

  13. Wes: You left out the REST of her comment:

    Meanwhile we can look at the NRA and how it functions very carefully. The idea the Second Amendment was designed to enable slave owners to chase down escaped slaves more effectively is chilling. Fruit of the poisonous tree indeed.

    I pointed out, in a comment there, both that that is completely without evidence and that on the other hand gun control as a policy is documentably racist in origin.

    This will have no effect on her beliefs, I suspect, even if she reads it. I’d love to be wrong there, but experience suggests otherwise.

  14. He/She/It wrote:

    “A pistol, like the one I own, only has 5 in the chamber and does not use a magazine.”

    Words written by someone ignorant of handguns. A correct description would have been more like:

    “A revolver, like the one I own, only has 5 in the cylinder and does not use a magazine.”

    FAIL.

  15. So, if the anti-gun, anti-rights, anti-liberty crowd is shilling under the American Hunters and Shooters Assoc., then perhaps it’s time the pro-everything that’s right in the world side start an “American Association for the Promotion of Sane Gun Laws” and begin shilling as well.

    Sorry AAPSGL is the best I could come up with off the cuff. Time to use their tactics against them.

  16. I, and several others, posted over at her “blog”. All comments concerning astroturf have been magically moderated away. Alas, the memoryhole…

  17. What gives these people the right to sit down and decide what I should or should not have ? They are traitors.

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