Former Everytown Employee Claims Anti-Gun Group Uses ‘Disturbing’ Campaign Tactics

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which is now, along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, part of the Everytown for Gun Safety coalition. (Photo: Everytown)

A Maine-based journalist claims to have received an email from a former employee of the anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety that outlines several disturbing campaign tactics used by the organization in the recent election.

The emails describe how Everytown strategically chooses rural areas where it can hire employees at low wages and purchase a greater number of advertisements. The group hires “field staffs” to appear grassroots-driven, but the real backing comes from “political elites” and “billionaires.”

This information comes from a message sent to George Smith, a journalist who runs a popular blog in Maine called “George’s Outdoor News.” The email sender claims to have recently worked for Everytown’s failed ballot campaign to require universal background checks in Maine.

As we reported in November, the Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action have recently begun pushing for anti-gun ballot initiatives in states like Maine, Nevada, Washington, and California.

These initiatives appear impartial and democratic, but, in reality, they are typically won by the side that spends the most money. Rather than work through state or federal legislatures, anti-gun groups pour money into advertisements in an attempt to sway public opinion just prior to the vote.

They were successful in Nevada, Washington, and California in November, and they’ll likely continue to use the tactic in the future.

Now we might have a window into the disturbing inner workings of these campaigns.

SEE ALSO: Bloomberg’s $20 Million Background Check Law Suspended By Nevada Attorney General

The alleged employee begins by noting that “it is widely acknowledged within the organization that background checks are not particularly effective at preventing gun violence, but that it is just one step in the national movement towards gun control.”

He also notes that Everytown adopted a “retaliatory work environment” and even performed “invasive” background checks on their employees by hiring private investigators to acquire information beyond what is legally accessible.

Rather than working in expensive, metropolitan areas, Everytown strategically chooses rural, lower-income areas to push its agenda. Once it chooses a location, it hires a field staff of employees so that the ballot initiative appears to be driven by the local grassroots.

In reality, the entire movement is a sham funded by out-of-state billionaires like Michael Bloomberg looking to “take advantage of communities to further their own political careers and financial status.”

The former employee sees Bloomberg’s anti-gun agenda, not as a means to solve “gun crime” but as a way advance his presidential aspirations.

Ultimately, these “citizen-driven” campaigns are the first step in the fight for stricter gun regulations nationwide.

The email Smith posted claims to have included documentary evidence of his employment with Everytown, but Smith does not include these documents in his article. Presumably, if the former employee is worried about retaliation, Smith did not post these documents to protect his source.