Despite the fact that its a project of anti-gun zealot Mike Bloomberg, The Trace likes to bill itself as a straightforward news operation, albeit one that focuses on “gun violence.” And all too often, mainstream media outlets are happy to play along with that fiction. The Trace has partnered with USA Today, Rolling Stone, and other platforms to advance an anti-gun agenda under a veneer of impartiality, though it’s not too difficult to see the pro-gun control bias in their reports.
The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia raised some eyebrows over the weekend with a post on X in response to a critic who claimed she and the organization she works for aren’t interested in covering the “actual problems” that lead to violent deaths and injuries because there’s no money in it.
There’s way more money in gun rights, a revenue stream in the billions. We’re not in this for the money.
“Gun violence” is a loaded term? That’s a new one
— Jennifer Mascia (@JenniferMascia) May 16, 2026
Way more money in “gun rights?” That might have been the case ten or fifteen years ago, but in more recent election cycles the gun control lobby has outspent groups like NRA, GOA, SAF, and FPC. Mascia, though, claims that doesn’t matter.
That’s money being spent. There’s way more money being made in gun rights. Gun rights groups get money from gun companies. NRA just sent an email from keltec
— Jennifer Mascia (@JenniferMascia) May 16, 2026
You can’t spend money you haven’t made, and groups like Everytown make millions of dollars a year thanks to the contributions of billionaires like Bloomberg, Connie Ballmer, and Paul Allen, as well as organizational donors like the Joyce Foundation and Fund for a Safer Future.
I wish the Second Amendment movement had billionaire sugar daddies and mommies who were funneling tens of millions of dollars a year to the National Rifle Association and other organizations fighting for our right to keep and bear arms. That’s just not the case. Are many gun companies and other firms that operate within the firearms industry supportive of pro-2A groups? Yes, thankfully. But the donations from those companies are a fraction of what Bloomberg alone spends on anti-gun efforts every year, and they’re also largely contingent on the overall health of the firearms industry. When sales are booming, these companies will have more money to give to 2A organizations, but when times are tight the donations are often smaller.
The Second Amendment community doesn’t have anything like The Trace, where at least six employees are making well over $150,000 a year in salary and benefits without any advertising base. Instead, we have websites like Bearing Arms, Ammoland, The Reload, News 2A, and talk show/podcast hosts like Gun Talk’s Tom Gresham and Armed American Radio’s Mark Walters. All of these entities are dependent on advertisers and subscribers, and none of them can depend on seven-figure donations from billionaires like Bloomberg.
I’m not complaining, at least not much. I like the fact that we have a real audience, and Second Amendment groups have a real grassroots network. But it’s downright silly to claim that there’s more money to be made in the gun rights movement than in the gun control arena. If Elon Musk or the Trump Organization were writing $10 million checks to the NRA or SAF then Mascia might have a point, but the gun rights movement is largely made up of millions of small-dollar donors. We don’t have a handful of well-off benefactors who’ve made support for the Second Amendment one of their primary philanthropies. I’d be happy to see that change in the future, but at the moment most big money donations are going to gun control groups and not those defending our right to keep and bear arms.
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