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No Compromise · NPR

The Facebook Flock

September 15, 2020·35 min·2 clips
Carolyn Ricker left the NRA after Parkland because they went silent on red flag laws and she couldn't get a straight answer from anyone.
The trail starts online. After the earlier NRA frustration and gun-rights organizing, the story moves toward people who gather around gun-rights groups on Facebook. Lisa is in Atlanta, and Patrick's Georgia Gun Owners feels close enough to reach during an actual scare. The story is simple and strange. Someone tries to steal an engine, gets held at gunpoint until police arrive, and nobody is shot. Lisa calls Patrick afterward expecting voicemail. He answers, asks what is on her mind, and keeps it professional. That is the contrast with the NRA. Then the map moves west. From Kansas City, the host follows the Doerr groups in Missouri and Iowa, especially Aaron Doerr's Missouri Firearms Coalition videos. Facebook turns into a reporting notebook. Messages go to people in the comments, and John Burke is the only one who writes back. He is polite, but careful. He belongs to Three Percenters, and he does not want that detail to take over the interview. The distrust makes sense in context. People in the gun world do not trust reporters, and the host says they have reasons. Reporters mix up clip and magazine, or use semi-automatic as if the word settles everything. The host also makes his own case. He covers guns, likes hunting, served in the army, and has spent time shooting. The tension is all about access. Before anyone talks, the reporter has to prove he will not misunderstand the room.

As heard by us

A measured look at gun-rights organizing, Facebook trust, and the tension around being reported on.

No Compromise stays close to the people and habits that shape the gun-rights world: Facebook comments, careful phone calls, and the guarded language people reach for when they know someone from the press is on the line.

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Why you'd press play

You hear how no-compromise gun-rights organizers sound when they think the door is closed.

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