Bloomberg Mouthpiece “The Trace” Would Rather People Starve Than Eat Donated Venison

Behold that which makes Mike Bloomberg apoplectic with rage. (Image courtesy NSSF; snotty comment courtesy me.)

Let’s begin today’s story with the number of Americans who have been sickened by lead fragments in donated meat: ZERO.

But that doesn’t matter to Bloomberg’s “The Trace.” This is a website funded entirely by Mike Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. And Bloomie really, really hates the concept of gun owners doing nice things for their communities. Therefore, when he sees news (in other outlets, like ours) about the thousands of pounds of venison that have been donated to food banks nationwide, he MUST bury that concept in a giant, steaming coil of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Of course, lead is bad and you shouldn’t eat it (LOOKING AT YOU, AOC. Spit out the paint chips). But as generations of deer hunters know, you simply do not get lead exposure or poisoning from consuming properly processed venison. This is nothing more than propaganda designed to promote a narrative, and that narrative is that hunters are destroying the environment and poisoning poor people out of sheer evil.

But this isn’t anything new; they’ve been doing that for decades now.

What is new is that, this time, the propaganda isn’t being paid for out of taxpayers’ pockets via USAID. For the first time in years, Soros and Bloomberg have to foot the entire bill for their efforts to infringe on the Second Amendment. So, for the first time, we’re getting to see what anti-gun “activism” looks like in the post-DOGE era. This is what it looks like when Facebook and Twitter/X aren’t using their algorithms to spread anti-gun messages and silence (or deplatform) pro-gun voices. All of a sudden, it’s simple to “trace” an anti-gun lie from its creation in a backroom to a front-page headline.

In this amazing article from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), we get to watch and play along as the latest anti-gun, anti-2A, anti-hunting, anti-American message gets squeezed out, polished, and spread like the world’s smelliest peanut butter. Read the whole thing; it’s worth it.

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Anti-Hunting ‘News Site’ Runs Traditional Ammo Scare Tactics in Iowa

By Larry Keane

The “Trace” brand of faux journalism is now branching out and creeping into anti-hunting, anti-science activism. The Trace, of course, is the not-for-profit “investigative” news site that writes about criminal “gun violence” and often blames the lawful and highly-regulated firearm industry for all things related to firearms. Oh, and it’s worth nothing that The Trace, by way of his gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, is funded by billionaire and staunch gun control activist Micheal Bloomberg. It’s also headed up by John Feinblatt, who runs Bloomberg’s Everytown.

The playbook of publishing activism as journalism is spreading and the latest iteration has been spotted in Iowa. Anti-hunting activists used The Sentient “news site” to post a story about the alleged risks of venison that was donated to Iowa food banks by hunters who harvested game using traditional lead-based ammunition. Never mind the complete lack of science behind the very basis of the article – reading the “About” description on the site tells you all you need to know.

“Sentient is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that publishes stories and solutions to explain factory farms and their effect on climate, animals, workers, clean water, public health, politics and more.”

The original posts on Sentient are then reposted and repackaged on other news sites, giving the appearance of legitimate reporting. Sentient even lists publishing partnerships on its site, similar to The Trace running gun control propaganda through partnerships with USA Today.

Red Meat Scare

It’s a tired attempt to score political points and smear a meaningful and beneficial program. Every year, American hunters donate millions of pounds of game they harvest to local food distribution centers to help those less fortunate, especially during heightened times of need. Yet gun control groups, anti-hunting organizations and animal rights activists continue to sow doubt about game harvested by hunters using traditional lead-based ammunition.

“Studies show lead contamination in venison is not uncommon. A 2020 study found that almost 48 percent of shotgun-harvested ground venison packets in a sample from Illinois contained metal fragments, all of which turned out to be lead. Another study, conducted in 2009, found that 80 percent of tested ground venison samples contained metal fragments — 93 percent of those fragments were lead. Although no lead exposure is safe for humans, and it is even more dangerous for young children, hunters still predominantly use lead ammunition for hunting,” the Sentient article purports.

But an article specifically related to Iowa and its hunter-assisted game donation programs gives away the scheme. It’s all a ruse to frighten those in need and to advance an anti-hunting agenda.

“In Iowa, a warning label on the food bank venison reads ‘Lead fragments may be found in processed venison. Children under 6 years and pregnant women are at the greatest risk from lead [sic]. Iowa has not found cases of lead poisoning from lead in venison.’”

The report then hilariously continues with the profound question, “With all the evidence that any exposure to lead is bad exposure, why do so many states still allow potentially lead-laden meat to go to its most vulnerable community members?”

The answer is quite simple. Because there is no serious health risk to those who consume game meat harvested with traditional lead ammunition and hunters overwhelmingly care about their communities and helping others in need. Generosity and sharing harvested game is deeply engrained in the hunter mentality and those who receive donated game overwhelmingly appreciate the kindness.

The Simple Facts

American hunters have used traditional lead-based ammunition for the taking game for more than 400 years. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) note there has never been a documented instance of a human falling ill after ingesting game harvested with traditional ammunition. Yet over and over and over and over again, anti-hunter activists claim America’s hunters must be punished in order to safeguard wildlife.

In fact, the CDC conducted a study in 2008, after the original “lead in venison” scare, that found that blood-lead levels in hunters consuming wild game harvested using traditional ammunition were actually lower than individuals in the same community that didn’t consume wild game. The CDC study showed that no hunters using traditional ammunition had elevated blood-lead levels even approaching the threshold of concern. Now consider that the Iowa Department of Public Health has conducted an extensive panel of blood-lead testing for more than 15 years. The IDPH has stated that, “if lead in venison were a serious health risk, it would likely have surfaced within extensive blood lead testing since 1992 with 500,000 youth under 6 and 25,000 adults having been screened.”

Couple that science with the fact that record numbers of game harvested using traditional ammunition over the past few years has meant that millions and millions of pounds of fresh, healthy game has been donated to families in need when they needed it most. In fact, game processors often lament that they can’t process donated game faster, in order to help even more families in their communities, including those in Iowa.

The Sentient’s game plan isn’t new, but yet it’s still maddening. American hunters helping their communities should be praised and assisted in ways that help them do even more. Running anti-science, anti-hunting scare tactics as “media reporting” in order to push policies that hurt hunters end up hurting their beneficiaries – those in need.

All done with no science to support, from the supposed “scientific” faux media site.