Lies and Damned Lies by the NRA

Mother Jones has done a great job at investigative journalism on the sad case of Mary Lou Sapone, a former emplyee of the NRA who covertly infiltrated activist groups and peace movements.

As Mother Jones reports, she joined many gun-control groups under her maiden name, Mary McFate.  Leaders of several social movements -- especially gun violence prevention groups and organizations -- have said for years that they have been infiltrated at the highest levels by the NRA or other pro-gun parties connected with the Republican party.

As reported, she began posing as a gun control activist in the mid-1990s having no previous history or record of social movement activism. Former colleagues in these movements contend that she was very well positioned to provide the NRA a host of information on grassroots networks, information on activists, and the plans and goals of "practically the entire gun violence prevention movement. She had access to all the legislative strategy for every major issue for years," says Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center." 

This kind of "covert operation" is nothing new to the environmental and animal rights movements which have simply been swimming in corporate and government spies over the past two decades.  Sociologist Rik Scarce's work on the animal rights movement has clearly demonstrated the depth to which corporate and far right activists will go to infiltrate and stop progressive causes.  Dr. Scarce himself was imprisoned for refusing to testify to a federal grand jury about his interviews with animal rights activists who had broken into a research laboratory.

The authors of this excellent and sadly rare instance of real investigative journalism -- which includes the anti-racist activist James Ridgeway -- along with Daniel Schulman, and David Corn, ask a series of important questions which progressives need to ponder:

"How did she manage to fool everyone for so long?

How much money did she earn for being a mole?

To whom in the gun lobby did she report?

Did her covert effort extend beyond mere intelligence gathering?

Did she manage to shape the decisions and actions of anti-gun groups to the gun lobby's liking? And was she the only one?"

We need answers to these questions and an accounting for such horrendous efforts by the far right NRA.  In the end, we are left with the need to do significant background checks in social and changes movements -- the excited, committed volunteer might be a plant.