A Spy for the Gun Lobby?

The normally hyperaggressive pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, is remarkably quiet about recent news reports that it used a spy to infiltrate organizations that push for gun control.

"No comment" is all the NRA will offer about the story, first in Mother Jones magazine, that named Mary McFate, a.k.a. Mary Lou Sapone (her married name), as a paid consultant to the NRA who spent years working her way inside such groups as CeaseFire PA and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, to ferret out their plans and strategies.

"It sounds like a bad TV movie, but it also sounds like it's real," said Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke. "I've been in politics most of my life and I'm used to dirty tricks, but to have this kind of spy, a mole, is shocking and appalling."

Helmke said that McFate/Sapone was active enough in his group to have tried to get onto its board but is no longer welcome to stop by as she once regularly did. "She's not going to be allowed to come here like she did before," he said. Efforts to find and confront her about the accusations, he added, have proved unavailing.

But Congress is keeping its eye on the situation. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) wrote to NRA President John C. Sigler last week demanding to learn what's up.

"I hope that we can agree that the gun violence prevention debate should be based upon an open and honest exchange of ideas, not on underhanded tactics," Lautenberg wrote. "In light of these serious charges, I call upon you to immediately admit whether these charges are true or false."