I’ve never heard of the Smoking Gun. Well, kind of. Didn’t there used to be a movie forum called The Smoking Gun? In 2025, the Smoking Gun is an ill-informed, anti-gun rag that I’d never heard of til recently. Judging by their low results on Google, no one seems to be reading or sharing their articles anyway. I’ve probably doubled their monthly clicks to research this article.
They are slightly less read than the Trace, which is impressive. Are they also backed by a billionaire with a squad of armed guards?
Oh, yeah, the answer is yes. It’s part of Everytown For Gun Safety, which is funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who championed the unconstitutional stop and frisk and gleefully admitted to targeting minorities with the program in a 2015 speech in Aspen. He also has a vast team of armed guards because his life is worth more than yours.
The Smoking Gun had a collective heart attack regarding this year’s SHOT Show. Usually, by February, people are sick of talking about SHOT, but allow me to talk about this anti-gun garbage and fear-mongering.
The Smoking Gun – Fear Mongers To The Extreme
One only has to read the ill-written, poorly informed article on SHOT Show 2025 to realize the Smoking Gun’s purpose is to fearmonger. That’s it. They have two articles on SHOT: one is a preview, and one is an after-action of sorts. Let’s look at the preview first.
The fear-mongering starts right away. For example, they are talking about SHOT 2025 and immediately mention Slide Fire Solutions, which exhibited at SHOT from 2012 to 2017, linking SHOT to bump stocks. They go on to list exhibitors at the SHOW and claim they are selling assault weapons, a term they made up to push fear.
Good golly, there is even a fifty-round drum for Glocks! Don’t forget companies make semi-auto belt-fed guns! Which, apparently, we should all be scared of. Don’t forget BB guns that look kind of real! I’m not joking. They talk about that. That and folding guns, which allow you to conceal an AR on your person! Sure, if I’m dressed like Neo from the Matrix.
The part about suppressors is my favorite. They call Silencer Central a silencer manufacturer, when in reality, they are just a retailer. The Smoking Gun mentions the wait period and Tax Stamp necessary to acquire a suppressor, but it winges about wait times decreasing and mentions the assassination of Brian Thompson as if that was related to silencer ownership.
Examining SHOT 2025
The Smoking Gun examines what they call the Lethal Innovations of SHOT 2025. They immediately mention the ‘bump’ grip that premiered at SHOT and allows a user to bump fire. The fear-mongering is ratcheted up about this device. Since the Smoking Gun is run by ill-informed and ignorant people, they don’t know you don’t need a grip or stock to bump fire. You need a belt loop and nothing more.
My absolute favorite part of this article is where they pivot from the bump grip to Mossberg’s new shotguns, which use AR-style grips and stocks. The writer seems to think or insinuate that you can bump-fire a pump shotgun thanks to this grip. It’s a chef’s kiss to a very dumb article.
From there, it pivoted to deadly handguns as if there was any other type. All guns are lethal. They bring up the RXM, which MAY BE compatible with Glock Switches! Oh, the horror! I don’t understand why they are so scared about Glock switches; they made those illegal, so clearly, criminals will follow the law and not use them…Right?
They also mention KelTec’s new pistol and ammunition, twice as fast as a 9mm! As if that means something. Also, to no one’s surprise, they mention S&W’s new classic revolvers and the fact they lack a lock. They even link to the Firearm Blog to help share the SEO juice, so that’s nice of them.
I won’t be linking to their article because I don’t want to give them an SEO boost to their poorly performing website. If you search Google, you can find it, but I’d copy the link and use the Wayback machine to avoid giving them views.
The Smoking Gun
For fun, I looked into the history of the website. The Wayback machine has it first popped up in 2001. I started clicking around, and it looked like they purchased the domain from a surf company. The domain was listed for sale in 2020, and it seems like the gun grabbers grabbed it in 2023.
If you read the articles, you will find that they are all ill-informed, ignorant, and fear-mongering. That’s it. It’s TMZ of the anti-gun world; it’s trash, but their lack of firearm knowledge makes it entertaining trash.
