The NRA has been promoting 'alternative facts' for a looooooog time.

[flamin lib]

The NRA/ILA has for decades confused and deceived their membership. The have fear mongered and obfuscated research data until they resemble Orwell's Ministry of Truth. Take for instance the reporting on the increase in mass shootings.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20170120/web-scraping-a-means-to-push-the-anti-gun-agenda

Web Scraping: A Means to Push the Anti-Gun Agenda

You may have read recently about a “breaking analysis” that includes numbers derived from a “mass shooting tracker,” which purports to present to the world, real world cases in which mass shootings have occurred. One problem, this is not actual data nor does it rely upon trusted sources like the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) to report incidents.

So it seems that the Google is not to be trusted because it doesn't rely on the NRA's preferred (for this instance) data sources. In the NRA/ILA's own words, there's one problem with that; the FBI doesn't track mass shootings, only mass murders. If four or more people aren't killed, it doesn't count. There's a second problem with the NRA/ILA's selective data sourcing is that the by the FBI's own admission their own data gathering is quite limited to whatever police departments feel up to reporting.

The http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/,which the NRA attacks here, uses internet searches for news articles reporting shootings. Every report is verified and duplicates are accounted for. It is far more accurate than the FBI's data.

So, data mining for an agenda driven purpose is a bad thing, right? Turns out not so much for the NRA. One of the most feared things for true believers in the gun culture is the searchable universal database of gun owners. If fact the creation of such a federal data base is forbidden by law thanks to the NRA/ILA. That said, such a data base DOES EXIST! Seems the NRA has been using data mining to amass just such a database.

http://www.guns.com/2013/08/21/the-nra-has-your-number-how-they-secretly-built-the-countrys-largest-private-database-of-gun-owners/

The NRA has your number: How they secretly built the country’s largest private database of gun owners

The National Rifle Association is known by many gun owners to be publicly against the threat of a national firearms database, but privately, they’ve been compiling their own all along, according to an article published by BuzzFeed.

The Virginia offices of the NRA hold “tens of millions” of gun owners’ information.
The Virginia offices of the NRA are allegedly home to the country’s single largest privately held database of current, former and prospective gun owners – and most of that information has been collected without the owners’ knowledge or consent.

The NRA has been datamining for years to fortify and build up their ever-growing database — collecting gun permit registration lists from state and county offices, gathering names of new owners from the myriad gun safety classes taught by NRA-certified instructors and by monetarily purchasing the lists of attendees of gun shows, subscribers to gun magazines and more.

They don't stop at gun purchases and such. I purchased a subscription to an outdoor magazine for my grandson and immediately began receiving solicitations for membership from the NRA in his name.

To me it looks like the greatest threat to gun confiscation is the NRA itself. One federal subpoena and the BATF&E also 'has your number'.

If that's not enough you might enjoy this.

https://www.thetrace.org/2016/12/nra-conspiracy-theory-fake-news-boom/

The NRA Was Waging War on Facts Long Before the ‘Fake News’ Boom

The gun group has attacked the legitimacy of mainstream journalism for decades.

Yet the gun enthusiasts just lap this stuff up like it's melted ice cream. Ya' gotta' feel sort of sorry for 'em.

[billh58]

1. Half-truths, outright lies, and distortion

are the trademark tools of the right-wing political machine of which the NRA/ILA is a dues-paying member. Through ALEC, the Koch Brothers, Fox News, and now the Trump Cabal of criminals and liars, the picture comes more clearly into focus.

Those who call themselves "moderate Democrats," but embrace right-wing causes and applaud Republican efforts to flood our streets and communities with more bloodshed, are maybe the most insidious of the entire right-wing band of anti-American "patriots."