{"id":118418,"date":"2026-08-25T21:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=118418"},"modified":"2026-08-25T21:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:03:25","slug":"118418","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=118418","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Anti-gunners Hilariously Claim the CDC is Wrong, the Gun Violence Archive is Right<\/a><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Lee Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trace, the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg\u2019s gun control empire, moved a story Monday that has caused a bit of laughter\u2014actually, a lot of laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cInflated Claim About Guns and Self-Defense Returns to CDC Website\u201d<\/a>\u00a0claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the CDC, estimates \u201ca range of 60,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses each year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe change reflects the Trump administration\u2019s staunch Second Amendment advocacy, putting the president in lockstep with a gun lobby that\u2019s long\u00a0promoted<\/a>\u00a0the idea that a \u2018good guy with a gun\u2019 is the only thing that can stop a \u2018bad guy with a gun,\u2019\u201d wrote reporter Jennifer Mascia.<\/p>\n

Ms. Mascia describes herself as \u201ca senior news writer and founding staffer at The Trace. She previously reported on gun violence at\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and was a contributor to CNN\u2019s Guns in America team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whom does Ms. Mascia use to call out the CDC and the Trump administration for publishing this inaccuracy? Well, it\u2019s none other than the\u00a0Gun Violence Archive<\/a>\u00a0and its leader, Mark Bryant.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gun Violence Archive executive director Mark Bryant. (Photo courtesy Mark Bryant).<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

The Players<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll remember GVA, Mr. Bryant and his faulty numbers. He claimed there were 417 mass shootings in 2019. The FBI says there were 30, because it uses a much narrower and more realistic definition.<\/p>\n

When I interviewed him in 2021, Mr. Bryant deflected blame for the media\u2019s overhyping of his overhyped data.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the numbers are misleading, the journalist didn\u2019t do their homework, you could make that argument. The media zeroes in on it, not us. At one point we wanted to take mass shootings out of the loop, but the phone started ringing on a daily basis. It\u2019s important to me that we\u2019re not misinterpreted. We\u2019re not anti-gun. Look at our staff, over half are gun owners. I intentionally do not hire from the GVP community. I want researchers \u2014 period. We wanted to have an honest set of data, and you can use it how you want,\u201d he\u00a0claimed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bryant wasn\u2019t the only anti-gunner Ms. Mascia quoted in her story. She also cited an early Trace contributor, Devin Hughes, who runs\u00a0GVPedia<\/a>, which she described as \u201ca nonprofit gun violence research outfit.\u201d<\/p>\n

GVPedia describes as something else\u2014something completely different. It exists to counter the reporting and hard work of just one person.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it currently stands, the project focuses significantly on the work and actions of one individual: researcher John R. Lott Jr.,\u201d GVPedia says on its website.<\/p>\n

Just to be clear and so we\u2019re all on the same page, the two entities Ms. Mascia cites to take down the CDC are the bizarre journalistic stylings of the Gun Violence Archive and a website devoted to countering the hard work of Mr. Lott.<\/p>\n

Before we get to the substance of Ms. Mascia\u2019s in-depth reporting, you need to recall something she claimed about her employer, the Trace.<\/p>\n

She bristled when the Trace was compared to Everytown for Gun Safety, another anti-gun group founded and funded by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know The Trace is not a gun control org. We don\u2019t lobby. We don\u2019t tell readers to support laws. We don\u2019t publish our opinions. We are all journalists. None of us have ever worked in advocacy. Our backgrounds are easily searchable. Why do you persist with this myth?\u201d Mascia wrote on Twitter, now X. \u201cFollow the bios. We all went to journalism school. The facts don\u2019t support your claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Rob Romano, an intelligence associate at the Firearms Policy Coalition.<\/p>\n

He examined the IRS Form 990s for the Trace and Everytown and found a stunning similarity. Both nonprofits share the same president, John Feinblatt.<\/p>\n

Further examination shows Mr. Feinblatt is also listed as the two nonprofits\u2019 principal officer. The 990s show that the Trace and Everytown also use the same phone number, 646-324-8250. Both nonprofits were incorporated in Delaware, which is known for its stringent corporate privacy laws.<\/p>\n

He published his findings in a tweet to Ms. Mascia, stating simply: \u201cThe president of your organization is literally the president of Everytown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Play<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Bryant told the Trace reporter that the CDC\u2019s number were \u201cnothing more than gross estimates based on limited surveys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Hughes said they were \u201cpolitically motivated laundering of disinformation that has become a hallmark of the Trump administration\u2019s approach to all scientific inquiry, and gun violence is no exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her two journalistic gurus took their shots, Ms. Mascia then admitted that defensive gun usages are hard to track and are not counted by local law enforcement or even the FBI.<\/p>\n

As a result, her story completely fizzled and died a quick death.<\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Trace has always operated under a series of untruths and misconceptions.<\/p>\n

It masquerades as a newsroom solely to provide cover for members of the corporate media who republish their stories as if they\u2019re actual news.<\/p>\n

Trace staffers call themselves journalists, some even have journalism backgrounds, but in reality, they\u2019re nothing more than ardent anti-gun activists paid in Bloomberg bucks.<\/p>\n

As to its reporting, the Trace has always made false claims. This story is no different. It\u2019s a legacy of its founder, Michael Bloomberg, who claims\u2014while surrounded by his well-armed, professional bodyguards\u2014that we\u2019ll all be safer if we would only give up our guns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anti-gunners Hilariously Claim the CDC is Wrong, the Gun Violence Archive is Right By\u00a0Lee Williams The Trace, the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg\u2019s gun control empire, moved a story Monday that has caused a bit of laughter\u2014actually, a lot of laughter. \u201cInflated Claim About Guns and Self-Defense Returns to CDC … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deceit","category-enemies-foreign-domestic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118419,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118418\/revisions\/118419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}